In multiples of 5
by Butterflysparkle97
Summary: Alex and Jo's life is turned upside down when they find out that they're not just expecting one baby, but Quintuplets.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! **

**So, this is a little idea I thought of and I thought I'd be super cool and fun to write. **

**It picks up just a few short months after the wedding. It's important to note that in this story Arizona and April never left and Ben is not a fire fighter and is still at the hospital. April and Mathew still got married. **

**Jo is a General surgery attending. She applied for the surgical innovation fellowship under Dr Bailey, that is due to start at the end of September.**

**I hope you enjoy! **

**Chapter One**

**August 20th**

Jo rushes around the loft, trying to find her left shoe. Through all the chaos of packing she's lost it somewhere. The couple had brought a 4 bedroom house three streets away and were due to move into the home in 2 weeks so boxes and chaos overruled their current Loft. They had managed to sell the place, getting an impressive figure for the sale. Neither of them had any idea that the market for loft spaces in Seattle was a competitive one. The new owners would move into the place in one month so Alex and Jo had to make sure that the place was spotless for their impending arrival, which due to their busy schedules, was easier said then actually done.

"Have you checked your wardrobe?" Alex asks as he packs some china plates into the kitchen box.

"Yes, It's not there," Jo says panicking as she looks through boxes. "Ah! I hate packing! Please, let's never move again," she begs.

"How about the box that you have dedicated to your shoes? Have you checked there?" Alex asks.

Jo looks up, realising that she was yet to check this box for her missing shoe. she rushes over to the box, which was down in the left hand corner of the room. She opens it and finds the shoe on top.

"Ah! Found it!" she says victoriously as she slips the shoe into her foot. She walks over to Alex, who was nearly smiling at the blondness of his wife. She kisses him and Alex happily returns the kiss. "You Mr Karev are my lifesaver. Here I was running around like a headless chicken trying to find my shoe while you kept your cool. That's just another reason to add onto the never needing list of reasons why I love you," She smiles.

"I know," Alex replies with a grin. "I've got a conference at 1pm so I won't be at the hospital until my surgery later today," he adds.

"Okay," she smiles.

"I've got glasses as my assist," he says with a glare.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry," she replies. Jo gives him a kiss. "The residents do need a well rounded education though. And scheduling residents and interns is hard, I struggled when I was chief resident. I'm sure whoever made the schedule only gave him to you so he'd get a well rounded education."

"Why don't I ever get you on my service anymore?" He complains.

"I have a funny feeling it's got something to do with the fact that as of 3 weeks ago I am now an attending general surgeon," she says with a grin.

"Well, that's darn inconvenient if you," Alex laughs. She gives him another kiss before rushing out of the door. The truth was that Jo wasn't stressing out because she couldn't find her left shoe. That was the furthest thing from her mind. The truth was that Jo was stressing out because today she was officially two weeks late for her monthly period. Yes, there could be a million other reasons why she was late, but the one that kept creeping across her mind was pregnancy. It was the most logical and common reason a girl was late for their period.

**Scene break**

"Hi!" Meredith says as she joins Jo in walking down the hallway to the attending's lounge.

"Hi," Jo replies stressfully.

"What's up? You seem frazzled," Meredith replies as she places her phone into her lab coat pocket.

"Oh, Moving, packing, its very stressful. I couldn't find my shoe this morning," Jo says brushing off Meredith's remark.

"It's the worse, I agree. Try doing it with three children in tow, now that's hard," Meredith comments as they near the attending's lounge.

Jo didn't want anybody to key onto her possibly pregnancy. She decided that it was best to keep her suspicion under wraps and planned on telling Alex tonight.

Jo and Meredith hear their pagers go off at the same time. They pick up their phones and both see a 911 page from the Emergency room.

"What have we got?" Jo asks Owen as she and Meredith walk into trauma Bay 4.

"James Wilkerson, 28. Rolled his car. Paramedics brought him in a couple of minutes ago. He is tachycardic. Suspected bleeding in the stomach and rib fractures. We don't know anything else," Owen explains as Meredith gowns up.

Jo nods her head and reaches for a pair of gloves. As she does she begins to gag. She struggles to control the gagging and in an effort not to throw up all over the ER, she covers her mouth and rushes over to the nearest bin and throws up. Meredith and Owen look over as the young woman throws up several times.

"Jo, if you are sick you need to go home. I can't have you making people sick," Owen says walking over to her.

She looks up at him. "No, no, I'm fine. I just had something bad for dinner last night," she says contesting Owen's statement.

"You are as pale as a ghost, Go home and drink plenty of fluids. We'll see you tomorrow," Owen instructs.

"I'm fine, I can stay," Jo protests.

"Jo, go home. I don't want you throwing up last nights bad bit of dinner all over the patients," Owen says sternly.

Why did she have to go and throw up in the ER? Why couldn't that happen where nobody could see her and be none the wiser? If nobody knew that she had been sick they wouldn't be sending her home. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Knowing that she was defeated she took the lift up to the third level, where the attending's lounge was located. She picks up her things and heads out to her car where she proceeds to dive back to the loft.

"Hey," she says as she walks down into the loft and sees Alex sitting at the dining table enjoying some food.

"Why are you home so soon? Is everything okay?" Alex asks as Jo walks over to him. He had a BLT sandwich on his plate, which was half eaten.

"Owen sent me home sick," Jo says rolling her eyes. "Yum," Jo says looking at and then taking a bite of his lunch.

"Hey!" Alex says.

"Sorry," Jo says as she chews the bite of food. "So, when are you leaving? Your conference starts in a hour."

"Right after I finish _'my'_ lunch," he replies.

**Scene break**

Later that night Jo and Alex sit in their bed. The couple were snuggling tightly together. "Are you felling better? Owen said you threw up quite a lot in the ER."

"Alex?" Jo says looking up at him. She careful not to break the snuggle, and his arms were tightly wrapped around her waist.

Alex looks down at her with a smile, "Yes."

"I think I'm pregnant," She replies with a grin.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two **

**The next day**

**August 21st**

"Are you ready?" Jo asks Alex as they sit down on the lounge of the locked Attending's lounge. Neither of them wanted to be disturbed, so they had decided that locking the lounge was the best way to go. Jo and Alex were facing each other and Alex could clearly hear the nerves in Jo's voice. He knew how much she wanted this. They both wanted this so bad and Alex fret that if this test came back negative that Jo would feel like she'd let the both of them down and her confidence would take a hit. Alex of course knew that it normally didn't happen on the first go, as much as Jo wanted it too. Jo was currently holding an unopened pregnancy test in her hand, which they had stollen from the supply room.

"I'm ready, are you ready?" Alex asks supportively. He places his right hand on her knee.

"I'm ready. And if I'm not pregnant it's no big deal, right? I mean, It's not like we've been trying," Jo says rambling on. "But then again, I don't even know if all my lady parts are working. Paul used to hit me a lot on my stomach. I've has uterine bleeding numerous times because of it. What of me not being pregnant now means that there's something wrong because of something that he did?" Jo asks anxiously.

"Jo, if this test is negative then It'll be okay, I promise you. You are reading too much into everything," Alex replies supportively.

Jo nods her head, "You're right, you're right. We haven't even started trying, but I'm just freaking out because I want this so bad," She says nervously. She slowly gets up at walks to the bathroom. As she does she looks back at Alex, who provides her with a reassuring smile. Once she reaches the bathroom she unwraps the test and takes it.

The agonising two minute wait felt like a lifetime for Jo as she stood in the bathroom. Jo considered waiting out with Alex, but If it was negative she didn't want him to see the look of disappointment on her face.

"Alex! Alex!" She yells from the bathroom.

Alex comes running to the bathroom and opens up the door, "what is it? Are you okay?" Alex asks concerned for his wife.

"Two lines! Look, two lines!" She says excitedly, "Tell me I'm not dreaming, please tell me I'm not dreaming," Jo says shoving the test into Alex's hands.

Jo watches Alex's face turn to pure happiness and joy, "You're not dreaming, you're pregnant, we're pregnant! We're gonna have a baby!" Alex exclaims happily.

"We're having a baby!" Jo says squealing while jumping up and down.

"Shhh, I'm pretty sure the whole hospital just heard you," Alex says as he puts his fingers to his lips.

"Oh honey, I'm pretty sure the whole of Seattle heard me, but I don't care, because I'm pregnant!" Jo says happily. Alex pulls Jo in for a kiss and she giggles happily.

"You know that this means that you have to be unbearably nice to me for the rest of our lives now, right?" She asks with a grin.

"Life? Isn't usually just the pregnancy where I have to be nice?" he questions.

"Oh no, its life. I am growing a child inside of me for you and then I will be pushing said child out of my Vagina, for you. We want three children so I'll be doing that three times for you. My body will probably never look this good again and that's because of you. So I think that life is appropriate," she replies assertively.

"Let's not forget that you also get a child out of this," he laughs.

"Oh I won't. But your part is pretty much done. My part is just beginning," she laughs.

Alex shakes his head with a laugh, "Okay, okay, lifetime it is."

"And I hope you're ready for crazy hormonal Jo. She's going to be coming out to play and I can't control her, the baby does that. And right now the baby feels like a green apple, smooth peanut butter and saltana's. " Jo requests.

"You did that on purpose," he says with a chuckle.

"So what if I did. I am pregnant with your child so you have to be nice to me. Go fetch," Jo laughs.

"You are lucky I love you," he laughs.

"I know," She says simply. They give each other a kiss and Alex heads out to get Jo's requests.

**Scene break**

"Glasses, what have we got?" Jo asks as she walks into Ally Jacobs room with her now 2nd year resident's. Ally was a 26 year old woman who had been admitted yesterday after her appendix had burst. She underwent emergency surgery yesterday and was now recovering. "Please talk quietly, she is sleeping lets not wake her," Jo Instructs.

The group stand at the end of Ally's bed and Levi opens up her chart on the tablet. "Ally Jacobs, 26 years old. Admitted yesterday after her appendix burst. Ally underwent an emergency Appendectomy preformed by yourself, Dr Karev. Ally is currently receiving broad spectrum antibiotics to rule out any infection that may have occurred. She is on IV pain med's every four hours and is due for more in 2 hours."

"Great work. Let's move on," Jo instructs. Jo begins to walk out of Ally's room and her 5 residents follow her. They stop when they reach the nurses station and Levi hands the tablet to the nurse so he could place it on charge.

"I've got your assignments for today from Dr Webber. Helm, you're with me today. Roy, you're with Dr Webber. He is now back. Parker, you're with Kepner in the ER. Schmidt, you're with Owen in the ER. and Quadri, you're with Dr Grey," Jo informs them. Each of them nods their heads and heads their respective ways.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

**Two weeks later**

**September 4th**

"Girl Karev, you're late," Meredith says as Jo rushes into OR 4 after completing the Scrub routine. She and Jo had a liver transplant together and Jo was ten minutes late due to her morning sickness. Of course Jo didn't want Meredith to know the real reason that she was late.

"I'm sorry," Jo says as the nurses put Jo's surgical gloves on.

"It's fine, I'm only messing with you," Meredith chuckles. Jo shakes her head as they both step over to their patient. The area had been prepped and both attending were ready to go. "Where is your intern?" Meredith asks.

"Helm is on her way. She's just finishing assisting in the ER," Jo replies.

"Okay, good. Lets get started, shall we?" Meredith asks. Jo nods her head, "Ten blade," Meredith instructs.

**scene break**

Alex was knackered, his four hour surgery had taken everything out of him, especially as he was on the end of a 12 hour shift. Despite his ability to stay awake fading every second, he had somehow found his way to the baby nursery. So here he was, standing outside the nursery window looking at all of the babies and their parents, dreaming about how in a number of months that'd be him and Jo with their baby.

"Karev," Arizona says as she sneaks up on him. Alex gives a little jump up. "Did I frighten you?" she asks.

"Ah, yeah, a little," Alex replies.

"Well, you appeared to be pretty deep in dreamland there," Arizona remarks.

"Yeah sorry," he replies.

"Have you and Jo got babies on the brain?" she questions.

Alex bites the corner of his lip. "I'm going to tell you something. But you have to promise not to say anything to anybody, not even Jo," Alex instructs.

"I… I guess. You're freaking me out here. Is something wrong?" Arizona asks concerned.

"No, just the opposite. Everything is just perfect. Jo's pregnant," he says with a huge grin.

"Oh my god! Thats great! I cant believe it! It's about time we finally have some mini Karev's running around," She says excitedly.

"Shhh," Alex grins as he places his finger over his mouth.

"I can't wait to have another squishy little baby to love on. It'll be just like my own baby except I can give it back when it needs a nappy change or is crying too much, and I can spoil it rotten," Arizona says excitedly.

"You're not supposed to know yet, so don't start buying things just yet," Alex laughs.

**In the OR**

Jo, Meredith and Helm were now three hours into the possible 12 hour surgery. Jo was beginning to feel quite queasy. She looks up at the clock and realised that the wave of nausea was right on time. Jo swallows hard and pauses what she was doing for a moment to allow the feeling to pass.

"Jo, are you okay?" Meredith asks after noticing Jo briefly pausing.

Jo nods her head, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Meredith questions, "because I can get somebody to cover you if you're not well and need to go home."

"No, I'm great," Jo says as she resumes what she had been doing.

"Oh my god," Meredith gasps.

"What?" Jo questions.

"Yeah, what?" Helm asks.

"You're pregnant!" Meredith exclaims.

"What?" Jo replies in shock, "nobody said anything about anyone being pregnant."

"You don't have to. You're eyes said it all. They're sparking with the pregnancy glow," Meredith says with huge grin.

"You can't tell Alex you know. We're not telling people yet," Jo says with a huge smile.

"Don't worry, my lips are sealed," Meredith says. All of a sudden she begins to grin.

"What?" Jo asks her.

"Well, it's just that you and Karev didn't waste anytime starting to produce offspring," Meredith says.

"Well for the record, we weren't officially trying yet. It was an accident, but an accident that we really wanted," Jo replies.

"If I'm being honest, I've suspected for a a couple of weeks now," Meredith says.

"What! How?" Jo asks.

Meredith bites the bottom of her lip, "You're starting to show."

"Aw man, I thought I was the only one who's been noticing that... well, except for Alex. Nobody said anything so I figured going up to the next scrub size hid the bump," Jo replies anxiously.

Meredith shakes her head, "no, I'm sorry."

"I thought you didn't start showing until you were like three months. Is all of that a lie?" Jo questions.

"It really depends on the person. Each pregnancy is different I showed really quickly with Ellis but when I had Bailey I didn't show until 4 months," Meredith replies.

"Good genes, that's what I call that," Jo says bitterly.

"I'm really happy for you both. You'll make great parents. It's about time we had some mini evil spawn's running around," Meredith laughs.

Jo nods her head, "thanks."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four**

**Two weeks later**

**September 18th**

Jo anxiously taps her feet on the ground as she waits in the waiting room of the OB of the hospital. All around her were pregnant woman, all at various stages on their pregnancies.

"Is this your first?" The woman sitting beside Jo asks. She has shoulder length blonde hair and looked to be in her mid to late thirties. She looked to be in the late stages of her pregnancy.

Jo nods her head, "Yeah."

"I could tell. I had that same nervous twitch that you have now when I was having my first," she smiles. "This is my fourth now."

"Wow, that's a lot of children," Jo comments.

"All accidents," the woman laughs. "I'm Savannah."

"Jo," Jo says with a smile.

"How far along are you Jo?" Savannah asks with a smile.

"Oh, I'm not really sure. This is my first scan," Jo says with a smile.

"Ah, the dating scan. My husband and I couldn't wait to see each of our babies for the first time. It's so magical," Savannah smiles.

"Well, unfortunately my husband will have to miss the magic this time round. He's a surgeon here and he was pulled into an emergency transplant surgery," Jo sighs.

"Aw, no, I'm sorry to hear that," Savannah says sincerely. "Are you a surgeon here too?" She asks.

Jo nods her head, "I am. I'm a general surgeon. I actually only finished my residency a few months ago. I'm not working today though."

"You don't happen to know a Dr Alex Karev would you? My son is supposed to be seeing him next week. He has Hydroplastic left heart syndrome and it's time for surgery, once again. We recently moved to Seattle and he came highly recommended," Savannah says anxiously.

Jo gives her a warm smile, "I do. I just happen to be married to him. And he is a great surgeon, I wouldn't be worried at all. He is great with kids," Jo smiles, "and if you ask me, it's very sexy," She grins.

Savannah gives a chuckle as they hear a door open, "Dr Josephine Karev," the nurse calls out.

"That's me. Good luck with everything. And when your son is here tell Dr Karev that you know me and to page me," Jo says as she stands up.

"I will. It's been great meeting you," Savannah says with a warm smile.

"You too," Jo replies. Jo walks towards the nurse and enters the consult room. She notices Dr Angela Proudman sitting at her desk.

"Dr Karev, how are you this morning?" Angela asks as she turns to face Jo.

"Nervous," Jo replies.

"I understand," she says. Angela looks around the room "Is Guy Karev with you today?"

Jo shakes her head, "emergency transplant surgery. He's five hours in, still three to go," Jo sighs.

"Oh no, that sucks," Angela replies. "Now the nurse has taken all your weights, measurements and blood already, so, that just leaves us with the fun part. Are you ready to see your baby?" Angela asks.

"More then anything," Jo says with a huge smile.

"We're going to have to do an internal scan, it will be to soon to see your baby using an external scan. It will be uncomfortable, but shouldn't hurt, okay?" Angela says. Jo nods her head and Angela begins the scan.

"Oh my," Angela says as she looks at the screen, which at this point had not yet been tilted to Jo, so she was unable to see what was on it.

"What? What is it? Is something wrong?" Jo questions anxiously. She could feel her heart rate getting higher and higher.

"No, no, don't worry," Angela tells Jo, "Nurse, could you get me Dr Banks please? I need her to take a look at this scan for me," Angela requests. Angela freezes the frame and removes the internal ultrasound probe and places it in the side of the machine.

"Of course," the nurse replies. She quickly heads out of the room. She promptly returns with Dr Banks. She and Angela have a quite discussion before she leaves the room.

Angela returns to her seat and gives Jo a warm smile, "Jo, you're having quintuplets," she announces. "They're all in the same sac too, so that means that their identical."

Jo feels her eyes begin to pop out of her head as Angela angles the ultrasound screen over to Jo so she could see it. Yep, there's baby one, two, three, four and baby five. There were five babies in there alright.

**A few hours later**

Jo stands at the nurses station on the Paeds floor hyperventilating. She'd been standing there hyperventilating for the past three hours waiting for Alex to come out of surgery. She didn't know what to think except terror. Terror was the one thing plaguing her mind right now. Five. Her uterus was currently housing not one, or even two, but five tiny human lives. How does one even have room to house five babies?

"Jo!" Alex calls out as he spots his wife standing at the desk. Jo turns around and sees him walking towards her.

"Five," she states blankly.

"I'm sorry?" Alex asks. Her tone indicated that he'd done something wrong, yet he wasn't sure what it was. Her tone also indicated that she was panicked and freaked out.

"Five," she states again, this time a little more annoyed.

"Five what?" He questions.

"Five babies. You put five freaking babies inside of me. Why the hell would you do that Karev!" Jo asks panicking. She gives his shoulder a little hit.

"Fi... five? As in quintuplet Five?" He asks. His voice was trembling and hands shaking.

"No, Five as in one baby! Yes, Five as in quintuplet five!" Jo replies.

"I think I need to sit down," he replies. He heads over to the nearest chair where the colour of his face had now completely disappeared.

"You need a seat, really? I'm the one with five of them inside of me!" Jo says as she sits down next to him.

"What do we do?" He asks.

"I think I need to be sick," Jo says. She covers her mouth and leaps towards the nearest rubbish bin and throws up.

Alex makes his way over to Jo and holds back her hair. He rubs her back to soothe her until she stopped throwing up.

"Are you okay?" He asks concerned.

Jo leans up against the wall that the bin was and Alex joins her. "Honestly I don't know," she laughs. "We're having freaking quintuplets. How is anybody okay after hearing that. I'm not going to be okay for the next 18 years," she laughs.

Alex begins to chuckle with her, "I don't know either." They look at each other and then begin to laugh even harder at the absurdity of the situation. To onlookers they looked like they were crazy for laughing hysterically next to rubbish bin while sitting on the floor.

"Can you imagine us with five children?" She laughs.

Alex shakes his head, "our house is going to be a mad house."

The pair take a few moment to compose the severest and then they turn to face each other. "I need you to clear your afternoon. My OB needs to see us. She needs to run through some things with the both of us. It's a high risk pregnancy and she will probably advise selective reduction, which we're not going to do, right?' Jo asks.

Alex shakes his head, "no. There's no way," he replies.

"Good," she smiles.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter five**

**2 weeks later- October 2nd**

**12 weeks pregnant**

"Jo, are you sure you don't want a hand?" Alex calls from the bed. Jo was in the bathroom experiencing morning sickness. She had been experiencing severe morning sickness for the past week and with each passing day it only got worse. She was constantly vomiting, was bed ridden, had no energy and couldn't keep anything down.

"Why do they call it morning sickness!? It happens all day!" Jo groans painfully. Jo had been having her morning sickness constantly throughout the day. She was beginning to think that the name _'morning sickness' _was very, very misleading. "I'm going to sue whoever called it morning sickness for false advertising!" She complains. Despite Jo's initial reluctance, Alex walks into their bathroom and pulls back Jo's hair just in time for her to hurl once more.

After she finished her head rests against the cold white porcelain tiles on the walls. She sits on the ground next to the toilet, the place she'd called home for the past hour.

"You are as pale as a ghost," Alex says concerned, "you need to go to the hospital," he instructs.

"I have an OB appointment this afternoon," she tells him.

"And I will be home to pick you up later," he tells her.

"I don't think I can do this," Jo says looking at Alex helplessly. She leaches forward and throws up again. Alex rubs her back in support.

"I promise I'll make it up to you in more ways then you know. But right now you just need to rest," he says. "I'll tell Bailey that you're home sick again, but that you have an OB appointment later."

"Thanks hon," she says with a slight smile. After finding out about the quints, Alex and Jo had decided to only tell those who needed to know, and one of those people included Bailey.

"Are you sure you're okay here?" He asks.

"I'll be okay. Everything I need is in this bathroom," she replies, "and I have your number on speed dial, and I have the number of at least 12 other doctors In my phone," she smiles.

**Scene break**

**That afternoon**

"Jo, I'm home!" Alex calls as he walks into the front entrance of the house. He places his keys on the entrance table and heads upstairs, it was a pretty safe bet that Jo would be in bed resting, so Alex headed to their bedroom. He enters the room to find that Jo wasn't on the bed, so he decides to check the bathroom. As he walks into the bathroom he notices Jo lying on the floor.

"Jo!" He calls rushing over to her side. He checks her breathing and responses, only to find that she was conscious, but unresponsive. Her face was pale and ghostly. He turns her over to the recovery position and he immediately calls an ambulance.

**Scene break**

The ambulance officers rush into Grey Sloan memorial hospital with a Gurney. Lying unconscious on the gurney was Jo and right by her side was Alex. Alex was pretty sure he'd just been the worst family member that they've ever had travel in an ambulance, as he was consistory double checking them and asking them questions.

"Alex, what are you doing here?" April asks shocked to see him coming in with the incoming trauma. "Does Jo have her scan today?"

"It's Jo," Alex informs her. April could hear the panic and worry in his voice.

"Okay, what have we got?" She asks as she rushes over to the gurney.

"31 year old female, found unconscious lying in the bathroom. Pale face, unknown if any head trauma was suffered from the fall. I've been informed by the patients husband that she is almost 12 weeks pregnant with quints," Nicole, the paramedic says as they rush her into a bay. Alex follows them.

April places her hand out to stop Alex, "Alex, you have to stay here," April informs him.

"No, no, I'm coming in, this is my wife, my babies," he says emotionally.

"Alex, I know it's hard, and that you don't want too, but you need to wait here. We will update you when we know what's happened," April says firmly, "we've got her, don't worry."

"She's been having extreme morning sickness and she can't keep food down," Alex says.

"Her OB, it's Dr Proudman, right?" April asks.

"Yes, Yes," Alex says quickly.

"I'm going to page her 911," April says. She walks into the bay and shuts the dividing curtain.

**Scene break**

**Sometime later**

Alex jumps up from his seat as he sees April come out into the waiting area. "She's up in her room resting comfortably. She was severely dehydrated due to her severe morning sickness. Dr Proudman and I are pumping her through with fluids now. How much water has she been drinking?" April asks.

"Lots, she's always had more then the recommended amount for pregnancy," Alex says.

"Okay. We used Lodox and did a full body scan and nothing abnormal was found and the babies look to be healthy. Now we've taken some blood and Dr Proudman is going to run any tests she feels are needed to rule out possible causes. We want to be thorough. She's up in room 23 on Maternity if you want to see her," April says kindy.

"Thank you," Alex replies. April nods her head and gives a smile. Alex walks over to the lift and goes up to the maternity floor.

"You gave me a fright," Alex says as he walks into Jo's room. She was lying awake comfortably in her hospital bed.

She gives a small and week smile, "just keeping you on your toes," she says faintly.

Alex walks over and sits down next to her and grabs her hand. "Are the babies... are the babies okay?" Jo asks.

"The babies are okay, but Proudman is going to run some tests though," he says.

"Okay," Jo replies. "How long do I have to say here for?" She asks.

"I don't know. It depends on how the tests turn out," Alex says. "But an overnight stay wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. You gave me quite the scare."

**Scene break**

"Josephine, your blood work has shown that you have low levels of Sodium, Potassium and Vitamin B12. Jo, since you've been here you've vomited fairly constantly and you haven't kept any food down. How long has this been lasting?" Dr Proudman asks. She was sitting down next to Jo.

"About a week," Jo says honestly.

"Jo, you should of come in sooner if this was happening. Morning sickness is normal, but not to this extent. Now, we took your pregnancy weight earlier and you've lost 5% of your pregnancy weight since our last checkup. I've got my suspicions, and I will need to run some more tests to confirm, but I have a strong feeling you've got hyperemesis gravidarum, an extremely severe form of morning sickness," Angela informs Jo.

"How long until you get the results?" Alex asks.

"About an hour. I'll come up as soon as I get them. In the mean time I need you to keep resting. You can not get out of that bed," Dr Proudman orders.

"But I need to pee," Jo wines, "a baby is pressing on my bladder and it's darn inconvenient."

"Well then your husband will have the pleasure of assisting you with the bed pan," Proudman responds.

Jo gives a chuckle, "intern scut."

Alex laughs and shakes his head, "it's not scut when I'm helping you and the babies out. But, I will be paging a real intern when it's time to have the bed pan changed."

"Ah, that's my man," she grins weakly.

"I'll leave you too alone," Dr Proudman says.

"Thank you," Alex and Jo say at the same time.

Over the next hour Jo's room remains quite as Alex allows his wife to rest. Jo sent most of the last hour tossing and turning into order to try and get some sleep, and vomiting twice. While Alex spent it sitting by her bedside and ready to complete her every request. He hated seeing Jo so sick, it broke his heart.

"Jo, Alex, how are you both going?" Dr Proudman asks as she walks into Jo's hospital room. In her hand was a tablet, which presumably had Jo's test results on it.

"Trying to get some sleep. No success," Jo replies, "Vomited twice."

"Do you have the results?" Alex asks.

She nods her head, "it's hyperemesis gravidarum. It's very dangerous if we don't take action now," she says. "We are going to keep you going on IV Fluids and we're going to start you on Hartmann's to increase your Potassium and Sodium levels. I'm going to start you on TPN as you're not keeping regular food down. You'll take an oral vitamin for the B12 and while you're in hospital we will give you some IV antiemetic medication before switching you over to an oral tablet if and when you're discharged," she explains.

Jo and Alex take a moment to digest the news. "How long will I be in here for?" Jo asks.

"Because your condition is so severe and the onset of it was so quick I'm going to recommend you stay until the morning sickness lessens. This is a high risk pregnancy as it is and we can't take any chances. We will be monitoring the levels of sodium and potassium in your blood daily and will be giving you Hartmann's as needed. Be aware that this kind of morning sickness lasts longer then normal morning sickness. It could get better but yet it could also last the duration of the pregnancy. As we discussed two weeks ago, light duties. We need to do anything we can in order to keep you and those babies healthy. That means that you can't slug it like everybody else. Hospital bed rest starts from 20 weeks, so if you get discharged before then you will not be able to preform surgery. You will be working minimal hours for a few days a week. And I know you know all of that, but I thought a reminder wouldn't go astray. When you are discharged we will be taken blood and checking it weekly. You will be receiving a bag of fluids everyday," Proudman advises.

She continues to go through everything with Alex and Jo before leaving Jo to rest and for the couple to take everything in. If it wasn't clear before, it was more then clear now that this was going to be a very long and hard pregnancy for Jo.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**nine days later- October 11th**

**13 weeks 4 days pregnant**

It had been nine days since Jo was admitted to the hospital for hyperemesis gravidarum and every passing day made Jo more board then the last. Jo had been receiving IV fluids, PTN, Hartmann's and Anti Nausea medication to help with her condition, however she was still vomiting constantly.

"How are you feeling?" Meredith asks as she walks into Jo's room. Meredith had been a life saver for Jo and their friendship had started to take an even better turn for the best.

"I feel lousy. I can't do anything because when I try to, I end up vomiting everywhere. I haven't showered in what feels like forever. I'm not keeping anything down, so everything is being given by IV and I'm bed ridden. The only thing I've managed to accomplish is catching up on this season of the bachelor, and that's just guilty pleasure TV," she says. "I don't even like it that much," she complains.

"Yeah, I guess you would feel lousy. But, I came here to cheer you up. Do you know Jake Carson, the Paeds case I was working on with Alex?" Meredith asks.

"Yeah, the kid loves Alex and I think he's even developed a little crush on me. I used to visit him everyday. He's been here for weeks and weeks now and if I recall correctly, he had a lung transplant last week," Jo says excitedly. Meredith gives a little chuckle because somehow Jo had felt the need to tell her everything she already knew.

"You are correct, his new lung is going very very well. He's not showing any signs of rejection and his incision is healing well. You're right about the little crush because Today he asked Alex if he could see you and when he said you were sick and that he could't come and see you he totally threw up all over Alex. It was like a revenge thing. But then Alex said that he'd rig up a remote control car with a camera and let him use it so he could see you," Meredith laughs.

Jo giggles a little, "he's always trying to make kids happy," Jo smiles.

"Yeah, he is. And he's going to make an even better father to your mass about of offspring," Meredith smiles. "Seriously, you guys will take buying in bulk at costco to a whole new level."

Jo suddenly learns forward and throws up into her sick bag, "oh god, I didn't mean to make you throw up," Meredith says.

"No, your story was lovely. It made me feel a lot brighter. It's just the severe morning sickness," Jo says.

"It's all worth it in the end, when you can see your baby, hold your baby. All the pain you went through is all worth it to meet the little life at the end of it. Or lives in your case. What you're doing is nothing short of extraordinary," Meredith says. Just then her pager goes off.

"I have to go," Meredith says. "I'll stop by and see you later," she smiles before leaving the room.

**Scene break- In surgery**

"Ten blade," Meredith instructs. Bokee hands Meredith a ten blade.

Meredith looks over at Alex, who was standing on the other side of their patient. She and Karev and DeLuca were doing a tumour resection on an 11 year old girl named Lulu. The young girl had stage one stomach cancer.

Alex nods his head and Meredith makes the first incision. "Suction," she requests.

DeLuca provides Meredith with some suction so that she and Karev could get a clear picture of the tumour area.

"Has it sunk in yet?" Meredith asks Alex.

"Has what sunk in?" Alex asks curiously.

"The fact that you're going to be a father of quints?" Meredith asks.

"I don't know," he replies honestly, "tumour has good margins," he points out.

"We should be able to get all of it," Meredith says.

"It's been hard to comprehend. We're going from not having to look after anybody except for ourselves to having five babies to look after. It's a hard thing to wrap your head around. Usually people start with one and they see if they can keep the kid alive, and then if they can they decided to have another," Alex states.

"Well, that's how Derek and I did it and I can attest that that works very well," she chuckles.

"Well, we won't have that luxury," he replies with a chuckle.

"I don't know how you guys can even think about the concept of even having quints. I wouldn't be able to deal with one, let alone five," DeLuca remarks.

"Have you guys talked about what's going to happen after the babies come? Who's going to stay home and look after them?" Meredith asks.

"I don't know. We haven't really talked about it yet. She's sort of expressed interest in staying home with the babies, but I haven't really asked anything further. She's so sick all the time... it drains all of her energy. She's just so exhausted when ever I see here and all I want her to do is rest and focus on her health. I'd like to have some kind of plan thought out when I bring things up, that way it's easier on her," Alex explains.

"Alex, you guys need to have it sorted by the time they're here. You're going to have 5 sick babies in the NICU. All your energy is going to be focused on that," Meredith reminds him.

"We can't afford a nanny, but even if we could Jo wouldn't go for it. She thinks they're only for snobby rich people. Daycare is an option, but then at least half of one wage is going towards fees. I can't exactly ask Jo to stay home and look after them full time. She's worked so hard on becoming an attending. She worked her way up from Foster homes and hoodlum car living to get here. I can't ask her to give it up, I just can't. But then I can't see myself at home and taking care of all five babies and honestly Jo would feel so guilty going to work while I'm with them and she wouldn't want me to give up being a surgeon either..." Alex ponders.

"What if you both worked part time?" DeLuca chimes in.

"How do you mean?" Alex asks.

"If you worked three days and Jo looked after the babies on those days, and she works three days while you have the babies and you can both have a day off together?" DeLuca suggests.

Meredith nods her head, "DeLuca has a point here. I'm sure Bailey would be happy to reduce your hours too. She'd be more then accomodating for the hours you work too, maybe even give you both set in stone hours that don't change. Say, 9 till 4? That still gives you both plenty of time together as a family in the afternoons. She'd probably let you slide and not do on call shifts," Meredith adds.

"That could work," Alex says nodding his head.

"And finances, have you guys sorted that out?" Meredith asks.

"Jo's the budgeter. She's very good at it. I mean, she used to live off of and budget off of basically nothing," Alex replies.

"Well, you're going to have to help her out. Medical expenses will be your biggest spend. It's not cheep to have one baby in the NICU, let alone five. I'm sure Bailey will try and help you guys out where she can, but it's not cheep," Meredith advises him.

"I've been researching. $10,000, that's the base price for a standard C section delivery, that's not factoring in the whole multiple birth thing... you and I both know that this birth isn't going to be standard. It's costs $2,500 per day for Jo to be in the hospital. Her pre natal appointments are expensive too. And did you know it's going to cost at least $3,600 per day per kid for the NICU, and that's not including any surgeries, that's just for the bed and basic medications. That is easily going to add up to well over $1,000,000. The worst part is that insurance isn't going to cover it all, we'll be lucky if it covers 50% of the costs. Healthcare in this country sucks and is freaking ridiculous and expensive. It doesn't really occur to you just how much it costs to have a sick child, until you're going to have one," Alex rants.

**That night**

"Jo, I hear that you're taking bets on who will walk away with the rose on this season of the bachelor," Angela chuckles as she walks into Jo's room.

"I sure am. Are you team Jess or team Ava?" Jo questions seriously.

"I haven't seen the show myself," Angela chuckles as she jots down Jo's latest vitals.

"Well, I'm no expert. I didn't even like the show at first, but now I've warmed to it. I'm saying it's team Jess for the win," Jo states.

"You sound confident," Angela points out.

"I've spent what feels like forever confined to a hospital bed. I've binged watched every episode and even seen some twice. While watching I've analysed Ryan's gestures and body movements and it's shaping up to be Jess. So far every nurse on the floor bar three have picked Ava, so it look's like Me and the three busters who bet on Jess will be making at least $100 each," Jo explains.

"Well, it sounds like you're all sorted," Angela chuckles. "Now, sickness count?"

"In the three hours since you last saw me, 4," Jo replies.

"I'm going to change up your Anti nausea medication. This combination doesn't appear to be having much of effect," Angela replies.

Jo nods her head, "okay."

"Now, has Alex here?" She asks.

"He's been pretty backed up with surgery today. Lots of sick tiny humans and not enough surgeons so he's doing overtime. It's okay though because we need the money," Jo sighs.

"Are you getting plenty of visitors?" She questions, "getting company is just as important as resting, it'll help keep you sane," Angela chuckles.

"I am. Meredith stoped by this morning and Arizona came by at lunch," Jo replies with a smile.

"Good. Now, if you need me I'm one button push away," she smiles Just before walking out of the room.

Hospital bed rest was isolating to say the least. Jo wanted nothing more then to have Alex by her side 24/7, but she also knew that that wasn't going to be possible, especially because they needed the money. And the more work Alex did now, meant the more time he could take off with her after the babies were born.

The other Person Jo wanted by her side just as much as Alex was Steph. But traveling around the world like a nomad made It impossible to stay in touch, in fact, Steph didn't even know about the pregnancy. Jo could only hope that Steph came by to visit in the near future.

"How are you?" April asks as she walks into the room.

"Tired, but not vomiting as much," she smiles.

"Well that's fabulous," April comments happily.

"I just wish I could get out of bed and go places. Even just in a wheel chair down to the the attending's lounge to see everybody," Jo requests. "Will you help me?"

"I can't help you with that and you know that. You need to be resting in bed, that's why it's called bed rest," April says with a chuckle.

"Oh come on, it's not like you'll be aiding and abiding a criminal. Even for just like ten minutes," Jo pleads.

"No," April replies firming, "How about we talk about the babies. Are you going to find out the genders?" She asks.

"We are. We have had a blood test, you can find out so much sooner this way. And because the babies are identical there's only one gender for the test to pick up," Jo explains.

April nods her head, "we found out Harriett was a girl as soon as we could. We wanted to wait with Samuel, but after everything that happened with him we couldn't bare the thought of any surprises."

"Well, finding out there was five tiny humans inside of me was enough of a surprise to last the rest of my life," Jo explains as she rubs her belly.

April gives a chuckle, "I can only imagine. Are you and Karev done reproducing after this?"

"Well, we only wanted two, maybe three if the first two turned out alright," she chuckles, "so yep, that's it. Alex doesn't know it yet, but he'll be having the snip. Which I'm sure he will be thrilled with."

April lets out a laugh, "good luck with that. If Alex Karev prides one thing in his life, it's his manhood."

"Well, I'm the one giving birth to 5 babies, so he doesn't have much of a choice," Jo laughs.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**One week later- October 18th**

**14 weeks and 4 days pregnant**

The morning sun was shining on Jo's face as Alex walks into Jo's hospital room after eating breakfast down in the lunch room. As he walks closer to her he could see that she was finally getting some much needed sleep after being up vomiting for the better half of the night. Although he had been up with her, he knew that Jo would be far more exhausted then he was. Alex takes a seat next to the bed and watches Jo sleep. She looked so peaceful and comfortable, a task that at 14 weeks pregnant was already hard to accomplish. He couldn't even begin to think about how hard it would be for Jo to be comfortable further down the track in her pregnancy.

The doctors were hoping to get Jo to 30 weeks, but being doctors, they knew that babies came in their own time and that reaching the 30 week mark in her pregnancy wasn't guaranteed, even with all of the medical support surrounding them.

There was a knock on the door, " come in," Alex spoke softly. He turned around to Jo's OB, Angela, enter the room while holding a yellow envelope.

"How is she doing?" She asks Alex gently.

"Finally asleep," he says relieved.

"Good, good," Angela smiles.

"What's that?" Alex asks as he gestures towards the yellow parcel.

"Oh, it's your gender blood test results. I was going to tell you now, but I don't want to wake her up. She needs her rest," Angela explains.

"Can you tell me? I want to plan something for Jo... like a surprise gender reveal," he says.

**Scene break**

As Jo's heavy eyes begin to open she sees what looked to be blurs of pink around the room. Jo blinks a few times to wake her eyes up and the blurs of pink turn into pink balloons, streamers and ribbon.

She turns her head to the right and sees Alex sitting by her side, "you're awake," he smiles. He plants a kiss on her forehead.

"Mm," she says with a slight smile, "what's going on?"

Alex gives a little chuckle, "I thought you might be wondering that."

"Did you let Kepner and Arizona decorate my room?" She asks.

"Well, they helped," Alex grins. "What colour do you see?"

"Pink. I see all pink," Jo replies.

"And what does Pink mean?" He asks.

Jo covers her mouth and flings up her her bed. Alex quickly reaches for the sick bucket and Jo begins to hurl. Alex rubs her back to soothe her.

During a brief pause in her vomiting saga Jo looks up at Alex, "Girls. Pink means girls. We're having girls," she says quickly before vomiting once again.

30 minutes later Jo's vomiting saga had subsided. Angela had just payed Jo a visit to get some more TPI into her.

"Mrs Karev, have I told you how much I love you lately?" Alex asks while sitting next to her.

"Have I told you how much I hate having liquid food pumped into me?" She asks, "I know it's for the babies, but it sucks. I don't even remember what regular food tastes like," she whines. "In fact, I've probably forgotten how to eat regular food."

Alex plants a kiss on her temple, "I don't know how you're doing it. I would have given up by now, I'm sure of it," he replies.

"I can feel them. Every time there's a movement in there It reminds me of the amazing prizes at the end. I'm just overcome with happiness and joy when I feel them and then I wonder which baby it is that moved. Most of the kicks come from where baby D and E are sitting," She smiles.

"I think we should think of some names, especially now we know they're girls. That way we can stop calling them baby A, B, C, D and E," he chuckles.

"How do you even name five babies?" She questions.

"You just pick names that you like. You changed your name, isn't that what you did?" Alex asks.

"Well, Yeah. I picked Josephine because I liked it. But that's just the thing, I liked it. Nobody else had to like it. I didn't have to run names by somebody else, it was just me," Jo replies.

"So you're worried that we won't like the same names?" He asks.

Jo nods her head, "Exactly."

"Well, what style of name do you like?" He asks.

"I don't really have a particular style," she replies.

"Okay well, what are some of the names you like?" He asks.

"Ah, Okay. There's Allison, Mackenzie, Jessica, Neveah, Zara, Anise," Jo begins.

"Hm, none of them really struck a cord with me," he replies.

"Okay, what about Hannah?" Jo asks. Alex shakes his head, "really? What's wrong with Hannah?"

"Its a Palindrome. You can spell it the same backwards and forwards," Alex says

"Well isn't that a good thing? It means other kids can't tease her by making awful nick names of her name spelt backwards," Jo explains.

"That doesn't even make sense," he chuckles.

"I have pregnancy brain, things I say don't have to make sense," she replies. "And this is exactly what I thought would happen. I've given you like 12 names and you hate them all," she complains.

"It was 7," Alex chuckles.

"Whatever smart arse, how about you suggest some names then?" She asks.

"Emerson, Harper, Riley, Parker," he begins.

"Honey, all your names are unisex names. I hate unisex names. People will be trying to guess if they're girls or boys until they meet them and will probably just assume that they're boys, which for the record, will drive me crazy," Jo replies.

"What about Phoebe?" He asks.

Jo pauses for a moment and thinks, "Phoebe. Phoebe Karev. I like it. I has a nice ring to it."

"What about a middle names? Any ideas?" Alex asks.

"I was thinking that we would use middles names with strong meanings behind them, you know, personal ones," Jo replies.

"And what were you thinking?" He asks curiously.

"Well, Brooke, because it was my birth name. Helen, because it's your mothers name. Stephanie, because she's my person. Even if she is a nomad right now… Meredith, because she's you person... well, aside from me, and because she was really there for me when I needed her and she's kind of my person now too. And Alexandra, after Meredith's sister, Lexie. I know that I never met her, and it might be weird given that you two dated for a short while, but she sounds like she was an extraordinary person and she meant something to you... her name is on the freaking hospital. She was a special person for a lot of people and it's only fair that she's honoured," Jo explains.

"Well, it sounds like a wonderful idea to me. I love it. I like Helen with Phoebe," Alex suggests.

"Phoebe Helen Karev. I love that, " Jo smiles. "But the middle names can be changed around if they suit another name better, alright?"

"Right," Alex says with a nod of approval.

"And as for the other four I think we would each write a list down with names that we like before we discuss any more," She suggests.

"Good idea. It'll save fights," Alex replies.

"Fights? You can't fight with the pregnant lady expecting Quints on hospital bed rest. That's not allowed," she chuckles.

Alex laughs, "I guess you're right."

"You know it," she grins.

"But we do have some other things to discuss..." Alex begins.

"Fiancees, work, ect," Jo concludes.

Alex nods his head. "You've been so sick and you've had very little energy so I didn't want to bring anything up. I just wanted you to focus on getting rest and growing five healthy babies, but I think it's time we talk about it," he explains.

"I think we need to talk about it too. I've been thinking a lot about it and I think in order to do this... in order to raise five little girls we need to be on the same page about everything," Jo replies.

Alex nods his head, "I agree."

"I've been thinking a lot about it. C section recovery is 6 weeks light duties, so obviously I won't be working through that. But I'm not sure that I want to go back to work right away, which might sound strange considering I'm only just an attending. Believe me, it sounds strange to be, but yet I have an overwhelming urge to stay at home with the girls for at least their first birthday, maybe even their second. And I know that it's selfish because you won't get to spend as much time with them and they'll be growing up so fast. And trust me, I never thought I'd be that girl who'd want to stay at home with the kids while her husband went to work, but I do. I want that and I can't fully explain why… maternal instincts maybe," Jo explains with a smile. "And I'm not at all saying that I'll be a perfect stay at home mother and wife, because I won't be. Dinner probably won't be on the table when you get home and I'm an awful cook so even if I did manage to cook something it probably won't be edible. And the house probably won't be clean because my main focus isn't going to be cleaning," Jo rants.

"Jo, I don't expect a cooked meal when I get home. I don't expect the house to be clean. I'd never expect that. All I expect is to coming home to my girls," he says with a smile. He leans down and they kiss.

"So you're okay with me staying at home with them while you work?" Jo questions.

"Of course I'm okay with it, as long as it's what you want," he replies, "and if you ever get not okay with it, then we can re-evaluate." Jo nods her head and smiles at him. "Now, money. Obviously we already know that you'll be staying with the girls. I think that's the only way to go. It'll be too expensive to put them in daycare. We need to figure out a budget that's going to allow us too live comfortably off one wage," Alex begins.

"Well, I got full scholarships so I don't have any student debt and yours is paid off now, so that's one less thing we have to worry about," Alex nods his head and pulls out his phone. The pair begins to work out a budget based around Alex's wage. After working on it for half an hour Jo began to feel sick and began vomiting again. After a half hour vomiting saga Alex could see that she was so exhausted and needed to rest. He got Jo set up comfortably in her bed and went to get something to eat so she could try and get some sleep in peace.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**This chapter is quite short, and for that I apologise. It's more of a filler chapter**

**12 weeks 1 day later- January 19th 2019**

**26 weeks and 5 days pregnant**

Alex stands in the scrub room of OR 4. As he does he watches the commotion going on in front of him, as the nurses prep for his surgery on Ethan James, a 6 year old boy with Short Gut Syndrome. Alex had been caring for Ethan since he was a baby and this was just another surgery in a long list of surgeries. Alex had spoken to Ethan mere moments ago and the anaesthesiologist had just put him to sleep.

"Hey stranger," Meredith says as she enters the scrub room. Alex turns and sees Meredith walking in. She joins him at the scrub sink.

"Hey, What are you doing here?" Alex asks as Meredith unwraps her cake of soap.

"What? Are you too cool to do surgeries with me now?" Meredith chuckles as she begins to scrub in.

"Arizona was supposed to be scrubbing in with me," Alex replies.

"She was paged. One of her mothers needed emergency foetal surgery," Meredith explains.

Alex nods his head and smiles, "well, I'm glad that they sent you instead of some idiot intern."

"Ethan is your prised patient. He's been in your care since he was born. Do you really think Arizona is going to let some intern help you?" Meredith questions.

Alex chuckles, "no."

"How's Jo this morning? I haven't had the chance to check in with her yet," Meredith asks. The pair step away from the scrub sink and head into the OR where the nurses begin to help them put their gloves and masks on.

"She's over it. She's still not keeping anything down and most of all she hates being confined to the bed. Her blood pressure got a little high last night so they're monitoring it but there is a chance she may have to deliver earlier then we'd planned," Alex explains.

"Poor thing. I was over pregnancy by the time I reached 25 weeks and I was so ready to meet him. And I was pregnant with just one baby, not 5," Meredith chuckles.

"She is like super woman, believe me," Alex smiles.

Meredith chuckles, "Well, I'm surprised that you're still alive. I thought she would of killed you for knocking her up with five babies." Meredith places some badadine onto Ethan's stomach.

"Your guess is as good as mine as to why I'm still alive," he laughs. "Ten blade," he requests. Bookee passes him the ten blade and Alex makes the first incision.

"So, will you two be making any more babies? Or is this it?" Meredith questions.

"We only wanted three, max, so I think this is it," Alex replies.

"Then it'll be time for the snip I guess," Meredith grins.

"The snip?" He asks horrified and Meredith just nods her head with a grin. "You don't think she'll make me snip my manhood away do you?"

"You got her pregnant with quints without even trying. I thought It would go without saying. She could probably get her tubes tied, but that's far more invasive and a lot for her body to handle, especially right after having Quints. Arizona wouldn't even think about doing it at the same time as delivery. That only means she'd have to undergo another major surgery. Your's is just a simple snip," Meredith laughs.

"You are pure evil, you know that right? I was having a great time. Now, not so much," he replies as Meredith continues to laugh.

**Scene break-**

**two hours later**

"Jo, your BP is too high, we have to get that down. You're heading into pre eclampsia territory," Arizona says as she checks Jo's blood pressure.

"I... I don't know what to do," Jo replies helplessly.

Arizona sighs and she sits on the corner of Jo's bed, "we're already doing everything we can. We just need to hope that it comes down before it gets too high. I called Addison... Dr Montgomery before I went into surgery. She's on her way."

"Wh... what? Why? Do you think I might have the babies today?" Jo questions in a panic.

"Well, it's a very real possibility, so we need to be prepared," Arizona says cautiously, "We are doing everything that we can to get your BP down, but it hasn't been working."

Jo nods her head. She understood why Arizona had called Addison down, but as much as she wanted the babies out, she also knew that they needed some more time to cook and wanted them to stay inside her womb for as long as possible.

"30 weeks was the goal, and it is still going to be the goal, Okay, Jo?" Arizona reassures Jo.

Jo gives a slight smile and nods her head. "I'm going to try get some rest while Alex is still in surgery."

"Okay," Arizona smiles. She gives Jo a reassuring pat in the leg before leaving her in peace.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**The next day**

**January 22nd**

It was 2am and Jo was peacefully asleep in her room. After a long day, she had finally managed to fall asleep ten minutes ago. Arizona was standing at the nurses station that was located directly opposite Jo's room, and was about to check on her when she hears the monitors and machines start beeping. Arizona runs into the room and presses the code blue button on the wall, "code blue!" She shouts as a nurse enters with a crash cart. Arizona begins to preform CPR. Addison, who was walking up to meet Arizona, notices the commotion and she rushes in to assist. April, who too walking by to head to daycare, also rushes in to assist.

"What's happening?" Addison asks as she runs over to Jo.

"She's flatlining! We need to get her in for an emergency C- Section!" Arizona replies urgently. Addison heads over to the phone and begins to call up to the OR. "Charge to 100!" Arizona instructs. The whirl of the Defib machine fills up the room and the paddles are placed onto Jo's chest.

"Clear!" April instructs.

"Clear!" Arizona replies after she takes her hands off Jo. Nothing happens so Arizona continues CPR.

"OR 4 will be ready for us when we get there. I'll start to prep her," Addison says. Two nurses begin to help Addison prep Jo for the emergency C section. She had to be prepped quickly, they didn't have much time.

"Charge to 200!" Arizona orders.

"Charged! Clear!" April yells as she places the paddles onto Jo.

"Clear!" Arizona replies. April defibs Jo and they begin to get sinus rhythm.

"She's got bradycardia, let's get moving!" Arizona orders.

"She's ready," Nurse Jenkins says.

"April, Page the birth team. They'll all up on the whiteboard," Arizona says as she points to the board that was in Jo's room. "Karev is in emergency surgery with Owen. Tell Karev what's going on and then Do what ever you have to do to get him out of that surgery because once he knows what's happening to Jo he can't operate."

**January 22nd 2:15am**

"Kepner. I got your page. What happened? Where's Girl Karev?" Meredith asks as she walks into Jo's empty hospital room to find April sitting on the couch that was in the room.

"She flatlined. Her blood pressure probably spiked and caused her heart to stop. They got a Bradicardic sinus rhythm and then rushed her off for an emergency C section, " April states.

"Crap. Where's Alex? Does he know?" Meredith asks quickly.

"He's down there. Not in the OR, they won't let him in there, but he's in the gallery," April replies while looking in the distance.

"Okay. And who's down in the OR?" Meredith asks.

"Addison, Arizona and the birth team. They're in OR 4," April replies.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go down to the Gallery, I'm sure Alex is going to need the support," Meredith responds. April nods her head and Meredith heads out of Jo's room and down to the Gallery in OR 4.

Meredith pops her head around the corner of the door and sees Alex sitting in the front row. His head was buried in his hands. Meredith walks down to Alex and sits down next to him, "Hey," she says, alerting him to her presence. Meredith places a supportive hand on his back. "I hear you're about to become a father."

"I'm so scared Mer, what if she doesn't make it?" Alex questions

"Alex..." Meredith begins.

"She flatlined. Her blood pressure spiked and her heart stopped. They rushed her down for surgery," Alex says emotionally.

"Her blood pressure spiked, it happens with pre- eclampsia. There is no magic cure for it. The only thing that can be done to fix pre- eclampsia is to deliver, so that's what they're doing. I know that they were monitoring her blood pressure, but pre- eclampsia is unpredictable. Jo is a tough woman, she's been through hell and she's still here to tell the story. She is going to get through this just like she's gotten through everything else. She's the toughest woman I know," Meredith replies honestly. She knew that there wasn't one thing that she could say to make Alex not feel scared, but she hoped that what she said helped him, even if it was just a little.

Alex sniffles and looks over at Meredith, "they've delivered 2 out of 5 already. I'm a father of two... I'm about to have five babies," he says with a smile.

"Not just five babies... five girls. I hope you're ready for that ride," Meredith chuckles.

"They'll probably have Jo's will and determination," he adds.

"Oh boy, I do not envy you one bit," she chuckles.

**Moments later**

**In the OR**

"She's haemorrhaging!" Arizona yells as she and Dr Angela Proudman deliver the babies. "I need bags of O- Neg blood now!" Proudman calls out.

"I'll go!" Nurse Winters calls back.

Baby A and B had been delivered and were being rushed up to the NICU. Baby C and D had just been delivered. Addison was working on reviving baby C while Bailey was reviving baby D.

"Baby C is breathing," Addison announces as she puts the incubated baby in the humid crib.

"Baby D is breathing," Bailey says as she places her intubated baby in the humidi crib. "Take these two babies up to the NICU. They know you're coming. Tell them baby E is on its way Arizona instructs baby C and D's birth team.

The birth teams rush out of the OR with the babies. Angela delivers the 5th and final baby. She hands her to Addison to revive while she and Arizona attempts to find the bleed.

All of a sudden the monitors begin to beep. "She's flatlining! Commence CPR, I'll bag her!" Pierce yells. She had been in the OR monitoring Jo's heart closely. Arizona nods her head and they begin to resuscitate Jo.

"Where do you want me?" Angela quickly asks.

"Find the bleeder! As soon the nurse gets back with the blood well start pumping them through," Pierce begins. "But she's lost a lot of blood, she'll need a transfusion when she gets back up to the ward," Pierce instructs. Angela begins to find the cause of the bleed.

"Baby E is breathing! I am getting her up to the NICU now!" Addison orders as she places the final intubated baby into the incubator. "I'm going to check on the status of the other quints. Are you guys okay here?" She asks.

"We'll be fine. Go, go!" Arizona instructs. She knew how important it was for Addison to be up in the NICU with the babies.

Addison nods her head and takes the baby up to the NICU. As she leaves the OR nurse Winters walks in with five units of O-neg blood.

"Thanks Patty! Let's hang the blood!" Pierce orders. The nurse hangs the units.

"I've got it!" Angela announces as she finds the bleed and stops it.

"Her blood pressure is normalising, and her pulse is coming back," Maggie says relived as she watches Jo's heart rate climb on the monitor.

"Let's finish up quickly. Jo, don't you dare scare us like that again!" Arizona demands.

**Up in Jo's room**

Jo was now out of surgery and recovering up in maternity. Alex was sitting next to Jo, waiting for her to wake up. She had been out of surgery for about an hour, so she'd wake up any minute now.

Alex had been conflicted. Should he stay with the quints? Or be by Jo's side and be there when she woke up? It wasn't an easy choice and the new father had decided to squeeze in some time with the quints before Jo woke up and had only recently returned to her room.

Within a few minutes of Alex being there Jo began to stir, "Al... Alex?" Jo asks. Her vision was slightly blurry as she started to come too, so she wasn't sure if the male figure she was seeing Alex.

"It's me Jo, it's Alex," Alex says as he grabs onto Jo's hand, "page Dr Proudman!" He shouts out.

"Wh...what happened?" Jo asks as she grins in pain. Jo starts to try to sit up but quickly feels a pain in her abdomen. "Oh god, owe," Jo winces.

"It's okay. Calm down. Don't try and move. I'm going to push 10 of morphine for the pain," Alex says as she looks at Jo's chart. He washes his hands and puts some gloves on to administer the morphine into Jo's drip. Dr Proudman had requested for Alex to give Jo the morphine as soon as she woke. The effects would be instantaneous.

"I feel loopy now," Jo giggles.

"Yeah, morphine will do that to you," Alex replies.

"Hey, your hair is sparkly and there's a rainbow above your head," Jo giggles, "and your eyes are full of pretty colours, have they always had unicorns in them?" Jo giggles.

"Nope, pretty sure that's just the morphine talking," He replies with a slight chuckle.

"Now there's stars falling from the roof. We should get that checked out, that needs to be checked out. Hey, Hand me your phone," Jo requests seriously. She holds her hand out, signally for Alex to place his phone in it.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna do that," Alex replies with a grin.

"Aw, come on. It won't take me long. Hey, maybe you can dial the buttons," Jo giggles.

Alex shakes his head with a grin, "I don't think so."

"Come on, it'll be fun. Maybe they can look at the unicorns in your eyes," Jo giggles.

"Wow, sounds like someone's having fun," Dr Proudman says as she enters the room.

"Hey Dr Proudman. You have such pretty hair. Did you know your hair was pretty? Oh, and look at that, it's rainbow now," Jo laughs.

"Okay, alright then. Jo I think I'll come back in a a little bit to explain your situation to you," Angela replies.

"No, no, tell me now. I wanna know now," Jo whines.

"You are far to high to understand anything that is about to come out of my mouth. I think I'll wait. Alex, stay will her okay. Make sure she's good," Dr Proudman says before leaving.

"Aw, she's a party pooper," Jo giggles. Alex chuckles and rolls his eyes.

**An hour later**

"Okay Jo, have we come down form our morphine high yet?" Angela asks as as walks into Jo's hospital room.

"I think so," Jo smiles.

"She's still kinda high. But she can take this," Alex replies.

"Okay," Angela replies. "Jo, you had your babies," Arizona smiles, "they are up in the NICU and are doing as well as can be expected. Arizona and Addison are looking after them."

"You mean like, boom, no babies in my belly anymore?" Jo asks.

"Karev, I thought you said she could take this?" Angela asks.

"Jo, grow up and be the responsible pain in the arse you've been since this situation started," Alex quips.

"Sorry, sorry," Jo replies.

"They are up in the NICU and are doing as well as can be expected. We'll know more in a few hours," Angela replies gently.

"When can I see them?" Jo asks.

"You can see them in a few hours. Currently Arizona and Addison are with them and ensuring that they are doing okay and she is doing a full work up and assessment on them all," Angela explains.

"Wh... Why can't I remember anything? What happened?" Jo asks panicking.

"Okay, here goes..." Angela says before she proceeds to explain to Jo what had happened to Her. "You had us worried for a few minutes there," Angela grins.

"Just keeping you on your toes," Jo replies back with a slight smile.

"Yeah, no kidding," Alex replies. He plants a kiss on his wife's temple.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**The same day- January 22nd**

Three hours had passed since Jo had given birth to the quints. Jo had spent the hours taking a nap and was just waking up while Alex had spent the time sitting by his wife's side. She turns her head to him, "How long until we can see the quints?" She asks softly.

"Hey you," he smiles. He gives Jo a kiss on the lips, "I'm sure we'll be able to see them shorty."

"Actually, you can go and see them now," Arizona says as she walks into Jo's room.

"Really?" She questions excitedly.

"The quints are all stable in the NICU," Arizona smiles. "Jo, your wound sight is still very fresh, and it's too risky to move you to a wheelchair so we'll take you to see the quints using your bed. Now when you see them I want you to be prepared. They are very very tiny and fragile. They are attached to wires and tubes and you can't see very much of them. You won't be able to pick them up, but you can reach your hands inside of the incubators and gently touch them."

**Scene break **

"Are you ready?" Arizona asks Alex and Jo as they sanitise their hands. Jo and Alex look at each other and Jo nods her head.

"Ready," he says.

They both peer into the NICU and see Addison inside waiting for them.

"Alright then, let's go meet your quints," Arizona smiles. She and Alex push Jo into the NICU they stop beside the first incubator.

"This is baby A," Addison says. Jo and Alex look down at their fragile daughter. She was attached to every single monitor possible. Her head was covered in a pink beanie and eyes covered by a special mask and could barley be seen through everything. The tiny exposed parts of skin that could be seen were transparent. The little girl was so fragile and tiny... the length of a standard pen.

"Phoebe Helen Karev," Jo smiles. She places her hand on the incubator glass and Alex places his hand on top of hers.

"Phoebe weighs 1 pound 3 ounces. She has a heart murmur which we are monitoring. She is on oxygen due to respiratory issues and we are monitoring her closely," Addison explains gently.

**Phoebe Helen Karev **

**1 pound 2 ounces **

**January 22nd 2019, 2:17am**

The couple spend some time with Phoebe before moving onto to the next quint. "This is baby B," Arizona says.

"Felicity Brooke Karev," Jo smiles. Jo and Alex both look at Felicity, who looked exactly like Phoebe.

"Felicity weighs 1 pound 3 ounces. She has a heart murmur which we are monitoring. She is on oxygen due to respiratory issues. Felicity has mild Bleeding on the brain (intraventricular haemorrhage) which we are monitoring very closely. We are hoping that this resolves itself, but surgery may be necessary," Arizona explains.

"Surgery?" Jo chokes.

"We are hoping that it won't be needed," Addison reminds Jo.

"She's a fighter, I can tell," Alex says.

"She certainly is," Addison and Arizona agree.

**Felicity Brooke Karev **

**1 pound 3 ounces **

**January 22nd 2019, 2:14am**

Jo looks up at Alex and give each other a kiss. The pair spend some time with Felicity before moving into the next quint.

"This is Baby C," Arizona says as they reach the third quint. She looked slightly smaller then her two sisters.

"Bella Alexandra Karev," Alex smiles. Bella too was hooked up to many, many monitors and her transparent skin could barley be seen through everything.

"Bella weighs 1 pound 1 ounce. She has a heart murmur which we are monitoring. She is on oxygen due to respiratory issues and we are monitoring her closely," Arizona explains gently.

"It's amazing how being 2 ounces lighter makes her look so much more tinier," Alex remarks. He'd seen premature babies before. Most memorably, Morgan Peterson's son, Tommy. Back then while treating Tommy, it never once occurred to him that he'd possibly have a very sick baby too, let alone 5.

**Bella Alexandra Karev **

**1 pound, 1 ounce **

**January 22nd 2019, 2:15am**

The parents spend some time with Bella before heading to see the 4th quint.

"This is baby D," Arizona says.

"Grace Stephanie Karev," Alex responds. Her tiny little body was so fragile... so precious.

"Grace weighs 1 pound 2 ounces. She has a heart murmur which we are monitoring. Grace was born with Ectopica Cordis, a condition in which Grace's heart is developing on the outside of her body due to the chest wall not closing," Addison says gently.

"O...okay... what does that mean? How do we help her?" Alex questions as he he looks at Grace.

"When She is strong enough the process will first involve open heart surgery on the day to reconstruct the chest cavity in order to make room for the part of the heart that's outside the chest cavity. Then we will place the heart inside the chest cavity. We'd then mobilise the outer skin and muscle around the heart to allow it to cover the area. We'd also construct a shield to protect the heart as it grows. This is basically just a cover or shield that straps onto her chest. This is important because she won't have the sternum that would normally cover the heart in the chest cavity. Without something hard protecting it, her heart would be damaged. With time a something permanent will be constructed inside the chest cavity to protect her heart. She is on oxygen due to respiratory issues and we are monitoring her closely," Arizona explains to Alex and Jo.

"I know this is a lot to take it, so if you need a moment..." Addison says.

**Grace Stephanie Karev**

**1 pound 2 ounces **

**January 22nd 2019, 2:16am**

Jo and Alex spend some time with Grace before heading over to see the fifth and final quint.

"And this is baby E," Addison smiles.

"Lina Meredith Karev," Alex responds. She too was attached to dozens of monitors and could barley be seen through all of the medical equipment and wires.

"Lina weighs 1 pound 2 ounces. She has a heart murmur which we are monitoring. She is on oxygen due to respiratory issues and we are monitoring her closely. Like Felicity, Lina has a small bleed on her brain which we are hoping will resolve itself. If it doesn't surgery may be needed, but once again we are hoping to avoid that," Arizona explains.

**Lina Meredith Karev **

**1 pound 3 ounces **

**January 22nd 2019, 2:13am**

Jo looks up at Alex and begins to cry. Quite frankly, she was surprised that she hadn't broken down sooner.

"It'll be okay Jo. They're going to be okay," Alex says. He rubs her shoulder to try and soothe her. As he does he tries to keep his emotions in check, which was easier said then done.

"Don't tell me that it's going to be okay. You don't know that it'll be freaking okay! Look at them, they're so tiny... so fragile. We are freaking doctors and we can't even do anything to try and save them and all we can do is sit back and hope for the best... hope that the universe plays all the cards right," she vents.

"That's not true Jo, you can express breast milk for the quints. The nutrients and good bacteria in that is going to help them in many, many ways. You delivered prematurely, your body knows that and your milk adjusts to that. It's going to continue to adjust and change to cater for the babies ages. It's amazing. You are not doing nothing Jo," Addison explains.

Alex looks down at Jo, who was still crying. He bends down and rests his head on her shoulder and he too begins to cry.

**Scene break**

Hours had passed since Alex and Jo had meet the quints and now Jo was back in her room sleeping. The trauma that her body had gone through with delivery had taken a toll on her. Alex stood outside the large windows bordering the NICU. He stood there with Meredith, April, Jackson, Maggie, Bailey, Webber, DeLuca, Owen and Amelia. They had all just gathered outside of the NICU so that Alex could introduce the quints to them.

"Is everybody here?" Meredith asks.

"Ah, Yeah, I think so," April replies with a nod of the head.

"Right here," Alex says as he points to the quint that's on the far right of the window. The end of her incubator had a yellow heart on it, "That's Phoebe Helen Karev," he says with a huge smile.

"I can't believe how tiny she is," DeLuca says. Meredith elbows DeLuca in the side, "ow. What was that for?"

"Don't rub it in. You think that he doesn't know how tiny she is?" Meredith says quietly. "Helen? After your mum?" Meredith asks.

"Yeah, it was Jo's idea," Alex smiles.

"It's a sweet idea," Bailey replies with a smile.

"And here..." Alex says as he points to the next incubator over, which had a pink heart on it, " This is Felicity Brooke Karev."

"Where did Brooke come from?" Maggie asks curiously.

"Ah, it was Jo's first name before she had to change it," Alex replies. Maggie looks at Alex stunned.

"Wait, So Josephine isn't her birth name?" Maggie questions.

"Moving on," Alex says quickly. He points to the third incubator with a green Heart, "Here we have Grace Stephanie Karev," he says with a smile.

"Steph, does she know about the quints?" Jackson questions.

"We haven't been able to get in contact with her. She's been living off the grid," Alex replies.

"Well, hopefully she'll come back soon," Webber adds.

"Next we have Bella Alexandra Karev," Alex says as he points to the incubator that had a Purple Heart on it.

"Alexandra?" Meredith questions with a tear in her eye.

"After Lexie," Alex confirms.

"Oh Alex," Meredith sobs.

"That's really sweet," everybody agrees.

"And finally we have Lina Meredith Karev," Alex says as he points to the final incubator that had a light blue heart in it.

"Oh stop, now you're going to make me cry more," Meredith says with a chuckle.

"You have been my person Mer. We've been with each other through out this entire journey and now that I'm about to start the craziest journey of my life with Jo, it's only fair that I honour one of the main reasons I'm even here in the first place," he explains.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Four weeks later- February 18th**

**Phoebe Helen- 4 weeks old**

**1 pound 7 ounces**

"How are our angels doing today?" Alex asks Arizona and Addison as he carefully escorts Jo into the NICU. Although she had been discharged two and a half weeks ago, her wound sight was still fresh and very sore. It was easily agitated so she walked slowly.

Addison, who was over with Phoebe, smiles and looks up as she hears Alex's question. Arizona walks over to the pair and helps Alex sit Jo down In the wheelchair that was located near Phoebe's incubator.

Alex wheels Jo over to Phoebe. Alex picks up a bottle of Dettol hand sanitiser and the pair sanitise their hands Jo places her hand into the left side of the incubator and Alex walks around to the right side and places his hand inside and the pair hold Phoebe's hands.

"Phoebe has developed Patent ductus arteriosus. As you know, all babies are born with a hole in their heart. Phoebe's hasn't closed yet and this is causing her some breathing problems. We have increased the amount of O2 she is receiving and we are monitoring her even closely. We are going to give her a course of NeoProfen through her IV to help stimulate closure," Addison explains.

"How long will the closer take?" Jo questions as she rubs Phoebe's tiny and fragile hand.

"We're hoping that the hole will close with a weeks worth of treatment. If it doesn't then we may have to explore surgical options. But we're not there yet," Addison explains.

"Surgery?" Alex jumps in.

"As I said, we're not there yet. Arizona and I are confident that the NeoProfen will close Phoebe's hole," Addison adds.

"Right, sorry," Alex replies.

"Alex Karev, you have got nothing to be sorry for. You can ask me the same question 10 times and you'd still have nothing to be sorry for. You and Jo have 5 little babies in the hospital. I can't imagine what's going through your mind right now," Addison replies sympathetically.

"When will we be able to hold her?" Jo questions.

Arizona sighs, "I'm sorry Jo, it's going to be at least a few weeks until you'll be able to hold her."

"I just hate sitting here and watching them all be so alone. We're all together in this room, but I just can't shake this feeling like they feel like they're all alone," Jo sobs.

Arizona places her hand on Jo's shoulder and Alex rushes over to her. She buries her heat in his chest.

"I know it feels that way to you, but I promise you Jo, even you holding each little babies hand makes them feel loved. Your daughters don't feel like they're alone," Arizona comforts.

Jo and Alex spend some time with Phoebe before moving on and seeing the next quint.

**Felicity Brooke- 4 weeks old**

**1 pound 8 ounces**

"How's Felicity doing?" Jo questions as Alex wheels her up to Felicity's bed. Alex passes around the Dettol and once again Jo and Alex each places their hands in one side of the incubator each.

"Felicity's brain bleed is slowing down. There is nothing that we can do except for continuing to follow the same course of treatment," Arizona explains.

"That's great news!" Alex exclaims.

"Well done Felicity!" Jo smiles.

"That's my girl," Alex smiles.

"She is a fighter, that's for sure. We'll continue to monitor her brain bleed and do a repeat scan tomorrow to check on its progress," Addison adds.

Jo and Alex spend some time with Felicity before heading over to see Bella.

**Bella Alexandra- 4 weeks old**

**1 pound 5 ounces**

"How's Bella ?" Jo asks as Alex wheels her over to see Bella. He passes the Dettol around and then they each place a hand inside Bella's incubator.

"Bella's weight gain is poor..." Addison begins.

"Still? I thought we were trying to add low dose of supplement to my breast milk to encourage her to gain weight," Jo replies confused.

"We have been, but it's not making a difference. What we're going to do is add a high dose of the supplement to you breast milk. What we're concerned about is her low weight gain and the possibility of this leading to Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC)," Addison explains.

"Okay, So we start her on antibiotics to prevent that," Alex suggests.

"Alex, you're not her doctor. We don't want to put her on unnecessary medication. Right now it's not medically indicated. And the antibiotics for NEC are very powerful and they are a targeted antibiotic... giving them to Bella as a precautionary measure may cause more harm because they're trying to rectify a problem that's just not there," Addison explain cautiously.

Alex nods his head, "you're right."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**The same day**

"How about we take a break before moving onto Grace and Lina?" Arizona suggests. She could tell that the stress was getting to Jo and Alex and that they needed to take a break to clear their heads.

"I'm fine," Alex replies.

"Me too," Jo insists.

"No you're not. All of this is a lot to take in. So go get something to eat or take a walk for half an hour," Arizona orders.

"Page us if anything changes," Alex instructs.

"Of course," she replies.

Alex helps Jo stand up from her wheelchair and they walk together out of the NICU.

"I'm going to get something to eat. You?" Alex questions.

"I'm going to take a walk outside and get some fresh air to clear my head first," Jo responds. Alex nods his head, "I will meet you in the lunch room in 15," Jo smiles.

They give each other a kiss and thay head in opposite directions. Jo heads down the hallway where she spots a familiar face.

"Miss Schmidt!" Jo calls out. The elderly woman turns around and see's Jo walking towards her.

"Josephine!" Heather calls out excitedly. She heads over to Jo and they hug. "How are you? How has your life been?" Heather asks. She takes a step back and Jo hold's her arms out. Heather hold's Jo's hands and notices a wedding ring on her finger. "You got married!" Heather exclaims.

Jo nods her head, "I'm Mrs Josephine Karev now."

"You changed your name," Heather says with a smile.

"I did. I know not many woman take their husband's surname these days, but I really wanted too," Jo explains.

"I think its a great thing. I didn't know if you'd ever be able to love a man and trust a man again, especially after Paul," Heather says.

"Alex... my husband, he makes me feel so safe and loved. He's head of paediatric surgery here. And oh gosh, you're probably mad because you didn't get an invite to the wedding," Jo rambles.

"Josephine, It's fine. We both agreed that when you left Paul that the less contact we had, the less of a chance Paul would find you. We lost touch to keep you safe. And you're safe," Heather says with a smile.

"He ah.. he found me, last year. I'd filled for divorce. I didn't want him to still control my life. I wanted to move on and to keep moving forward I needed to cut all ties with him. He showed up. He signed them and then he died... he was involved in a hit and run. Like Karma I guess," Jo explains.

"I think that would of taken a lot of courage to stand up to him, and that's a beautiful thing," Heather says.

Jo nods her head in agreement. "Now, what are you doing here? Is everything okay? Are you okay?" Jo asks concerned.

"I'm fine, everybody's fine. My son's wife, Justine just gave birth. Their third. His name is Finn," Heather smiles.

"Oh wow, that's great. I bet your grandkids love you. I know that your heart is very easy to love," Jo says with a smile. Heather smiles back at Jo. "I'll never be able to thank you enough for everything you did for me in high school. I'll be forever grateful," Jo says.

"I know," Heather smiles. "If I recall correctly you actually started your internship and residency here. it's been five years.. almost 6 since that happened so you must be an attending by now. Do you still work here darling?" Heather asks.

Jo nods her head, "I do. But I'm actually not working at the moment."

"Oh, is everything okay my love?" Heather asks concerned. She was always like a mother figure for Jo and Jo loved how much she cared, and still cared about her.

"I ah, I not long gave birth… last month actually," Jo smiles.

A large smile grows across Heather's face, "oh my, darling, thats wonderful. Was this your first?" Heather asks curiously.

"Ah yeah," Jo says with a huge smile.

"Did you have a little girl, or a little boy?" Heather questions.

Jo takes a deep breath in, "I actually gave birth to all girl quintuplets," she smiles.

"Oh My!" Heather replies shocked. "You'll certainly have your hands full. Congratulation's," Heather smiles.

"Terrifying, that's what it is," Jo admits.

"I bet it is darling. How are you? Are you doing okay? Do you have support here?" Heather asks. She needed to make sure that Jo had enough people around her here, especially given the fact that she never had a family.

"My Ah... my Alex is the best husband one can ask for. No matter how busy he's been or how swamped with surgeries he is, he always make sure that we have everything that we need. And this entire hospital is my family. I've met some amazing people while working here and they are all in my corner. I'm very blessed to have so many good people in my life now," Jo says with a smile.

"Well, I am happy to hear that darling, I truly am. I have thought about you every single day and it warms my heart to know that you've had people in your corner," Heather says warmly.

"I don't know what I would have done without them," Jo confirms.

"What have you named your little girls?" Heather asks.

"Ah Phoebe Helen, Felicity Brooke, Bella Alexandra, Grace Stephanie and Lina Meredith," Jo smiles.

"They are some beautiful names," Heather says with a smile.

"Thank you," Jo replies. "I need to go get some air... clear my head. There's so much medical jargon going around my head right now it's overwhelming... even for a doctor," Jo explains.

"Of course my dear. How about I give you my number and you give me yours? That way we can stay in contact?" Heather suggests.

"I'd like that," Jo says with a smile.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**4 months later- May 12th**

**Quints- 4 months old (corrected age- 1 month old)**

"Are you serious? Are you sure? You're sure that we can take Lina home today?" Jo questions Arizona in shock as she stands with Alex in the NICU over looking Phoebe.

"I am sure. She is 5 pounds 5 ounces so she weighs enough. Her vitals are stable and have been for long enough. We have been through care instructions for home and you know how and when to use her monitors. She just has to pass her car seat test and she's good to go," Arizona smiles.

"It's just we didn't think she'd be able to come home for another couple of days," Alex says shocked.

"Babies have a funny way of surprising us when we least expect it," Arizona says cheerfully.

"What about her sisters?" Jo questions.

"Phoebe is almost there. Within the next few days I would think she'll be allowed to go home and then Bella, Felicity and Grace shouldn't be too far behind," Arizona replies.

"That's great!" Alex exclaims. Jo looks up at him and he looks down at Jo and they kiss.

"How are the girls going today?" Meredith asks as she enters the NICU. Meredith had been checking in on the girls and their parents multiple times each day and Alex and Jo certainly appreciated the support.

"Lina gets to go home today," Alex says proudly. "She hit 5 pounds 5 ounces this morning."

"That's because you has such a strong middle name, isn't it Lina?" Meredith says in a childish tone to Phoebe.

"Or because she has such a bad arse mother," Jo adds.

"And an awesome father," Alex adds.

"Maybe its because of her strong middle name and bad arse mother," Meredith suggests.

"Yes! That has to be it," Jo gasps.

"I can't think of anything else, you?" Meredith questions.

"I'm right here," Alex comments.

Jo shakes her head, "me either," she grins.

"Hello, I'm still right here," he says.

"Oh, we know," Jo laughs.

"Our little princess just needs to pass her car seat test," Alex adds.

"Well she will pass with flying colours," Meredith says assertively.

**Scene break**

"And 3... 2...1!" Everybody In the room exclaims. Jo, Alex and what seemed to be the entirety of their friendship group at Grey Sloan were anxiously counting down the seconds left of Lina's car seat test.

"She did it!" Alex and Jo exclaims to each other. Alex gives Jo a hug and he lifts her feet up in the air excitedly.

"I can't believe that she's coming home," Alex smiles.

"I know. It's kind of bitter sweet though. I wanted this day to come, but now they're being separated. They've never been separated before. She's going home while her sisters are staying at the hospital," Jo replies anxiously.

"I know that it's a weird feeling, but remember that all of the girls are healthy. They just need to hit the weight limit," Arizona reminds the pair.

**Scene break**

It was 1am when the Karev's personal alarm clock woke them up. For many new parents the thought of a new baby waking them up of a night was terrifying, but for Alex and Jo, it was welcome. For their baby waking them up of a night meant that she had finally made it home after a long NICU stay.

Jo rolls over to pick up Lina from her cot, which was located right next to Jo's side of the bed, While Alex turned on his bedside lamp.

"Do you smell that?" Jo questions as she soothes Lina in her arms.

Alex sniffs, "Vaguely."

Jo holds Lina up closer to his nose, "you smell it now?" She questions with a grin.

"Oh yes, loud and clear," he says while turning his head away.

"Good, because now you that you know that I'm changing Lina's stinky, dirty nappy this time, it means that you'll be changing it next time," Jo advises.

"I'll get her bottle ready while you change her," Alex replies. Jo nods her head as she gets out of the bed. She heads to the change table located under the window while Alex heads downstairs to the kitchen.

"Oh god, gross! This is disgusting!" He hears Jo exclaim while he prepares the bottle. He takes out a pouch of breast milk from the freezer and turns the kettle on. Once the water was boiled he places the pouch of milk into a plastic container and pours the boiling water on top of it to allow it to heat through.

Ten minutes later the breast milk had heated up enough and Alex pours it into a bottle before heading back up stairs to Lina and Jo. As he enters their bedroom he sees Jo sitting on their bed and rocking Lina in her arms.

"Bottles ready," Alex says.

"Took you long enough," Jo complains.

"Well, breastmilk isn't quick to heat up. It takes some time, especially from frozen," he replies. He hands Jo the bottle and she begins to feed her.

"You know, I was thinking about trying to get the girls to latch. I know it's harder for premature babies, but I really want that bonding experience," she explains.

Alex looks at her curiously, "I think that's great. But I don't want you to put any pressure on yourself that you have to breastfeed, or blame yourself if they don't latch. Most premature babies don't learn to latch, and that's okay. I need you to know that."

Jo nods her head, "I do. I know that."

**One week later**

"Three children. I can not believe that we have got three children home," Alex exclaims as the family walk inside the front door of their two story home. Alex was carrying Lina in her baby carrier while Jo was carrying Bella and Phoebe, who had been discharged that morning.

"I know. It's so surreal. I don't even know how we're going to do it," Jo replies honestly. They walk down the hallway of the house and head towards the open plan living, kitchen and dining area.

"I guess we'll figure it out," Alex replies.

"We always do," Jo smiles as she looks at him. They stop walking for a brief moment and share a kiss. They head over to the lounge area where they had 5 rock in plays set up. They carefully place the girls into the rock in plays and turn them on the lowest setting and they watch the girls.

**Two weeks later**

**Quints- 4 months three weeks old (7 weeks corrected)**

"Five. One, two, three, four, five," Alex and Jo say happily together as they sit on their living room couch watching the girls. They had just brought home the final two girls, Felicity and Grace and now all five girls were in their _'rock in plays'_ in the living room sleeping.

As they sit on the lounge Jo snuggles into Alex's side. "I can not believe that we have all five girls here," Alex states as they admire the five precious and beautiful lives they had created.

"I know. I can't believe that we did it," Jo says with a huge grin.

"If somebody had told me when I was in high school, or even just a few years ago that I'd have all girl quintuplets, I would have told them that they were lying and I would have used a number of choice words," Alex chuckles.

Jo chuckles, "you're telling me. If somebody told me that I'd fall pregnant, and later give birth to five baby girls at once, I would have told them that they were lying... and then probably hit them."

"I'm so, so, so proud of you," Alex says.

Jo looks up at Alex curiously, "how so?" She questions.

"Well, you just said it. You fell pregnant with and then gave birth five baby girls at once. You carried them to almost 26 weeks, you're a medical freaking marvel Jo," he begins. Jo gives a little chuckle. "I know that the pregnancy was so hard on you, but you went through it like a trouper. My part was easy, your part was not. You grew five little babies inside of you. You nourished them, gave them warmth and food. You and your amazing body made it possible for these girls to survive," Alex says in awe.

"Aw, thanks baby," Jo says. They embrace in a kiss before. "The human body is miraculous. It's amazing what it can do," Jo says with a huge smile.

Alex nods his head, "that it is."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 **

**Two days later - June 4th**

A baby bomb went off, that was the one and only was to describe the current state of Jo and Alex's house. Every where you looked; in every nook and cranny there was some sort of baby product.

All five babies had been home together for no more then 48 hours and they had already turned their parents lives upside down. A schedule and routine was their saving grace and both Alex and Jo relied on the '_Karev quint schedule and routine'_ religiously. Their was no way they could get by without it. It housed all of the important details for each quint: When they last ate, how much they ate, bowel motions, wet nappies, when they last slept, how long they slept and when each said task was due to take place again.

Currently all five babies were in the living room and asleep in their _'rock- n- plays.'_ "I've never been so tired," Jo sighs as she flops back on the couch next to Alex.

"Me either," he adds.

"I thought being pregnant and exhausted would of prepared me for this, but nope, it didn't even come close to preparing me," She replies with a sigh.

"And we're only two days in having them all home," Alex complains.

"I don't think I've showered since they've been home. I'm too tired to remember if I have, you?" Jo asks as she looks over at Alex.

"I don't remember the last time I ate," he sighs.

"And I look like a hot mess who can't pull herself together," She complains. Jo's hair was half in a ponytail while the other half had fallen out and looked like a bird's nest. She was wearing no makeup and had a patch of spit-up on the back of her tee-shirt. Large bags were under her eyes and she felt like a zombie.

"You look like a woman who's just brought quintuplets home," Alex replies.

They lie in complete silence for the next too minutes until hearing the doorbell ring.

Jo and Alex look over at each other, "Did you invite somebody over?" he asks her.

"No… I don't think," Jo replies.

"Who could it be?" Alex questions.

"I don't know, but I'm not ready for people to come and visit. Look at this place…. Look at me! We're both complete messes," Jo states frankly.

The doorbell rings once again and one of the babies begins to stir, 'Crap, no, no!" Jo says as she leaps over to Bella to settle her before her stirs became cries that woke up the other babies.

After Bella was settled Jo and Alex both headed to the front door. Alex opens up the door and they see Steph standing in front of them, "Hi," Steph says while Alex and Jo stare blankly at her. "Do I get a hi?" Steph questions.

"Steph," Jo says shocked.

"Wow, you guys both look like a hot mess. What is going on in there?" Steph questions.

Jo gives a faint smile before they begin to hear a baby cry. "Oh no, Grace awake," Jo sighs exhaustedly.

"Isn't that Felicity?" Alex questions.

"No, It's Grace," Jo replies. She heads back down the hallway and to the living room to attend to Grace.

"Oh my goodness, did you guys have twins?" Steph questions excitedly. She rushes past Alex and down to the living room to find Jo. As she turns the corner she notices the mess and stops. "Oh, My, God. One, two, three, four and five," she says in shock.

"We didn't just have twins, we had quints," Alex says as he walks up behind her.

"Ah yeah, I can see that," Steph replies horrified. "That explains this," Steph states as she points to the hot messes that were Jo and Alex.

**Scene break **

"Wow, I don't even know what to say," Steph states as she sits in the dinning room of Jo and Alex's house with them.

"I don't think there is anything you can say," Jo responds.

"I leave you for a year and this is what happens? You knock her up with Quints Karev?" Steph questions.

"What can I say. My boys are powerful," Alex grins.

"Well, you're not wrong there," Steph remarks. "What are their names? How old are they?" She asks curiously.

"They're 19 weeks old… 7 weeks corrected," Alex replies.

"Their names are Phoebe Helen, Felicity Brooke, Bella Alexandra, Lina Meredith and Grace Stephanie," Jo smiles.

"Stephanie?" She questions.

Jo nods her head, "After you. You're my best friend. You're my person."

"Well then, don't tell the kids, but I have a favourite," Steph laughs.

Jo and Alex give a little chuckle. "God, I can't imagine what you you must have been through. Being pregnant with 5 babies, a long NICU stay and now you have 5 babies. I can't believe that you have 5 babies. That's just freaking insane," Steph says unbelievably.

"It was a journey of mixed emotions and struggles, but we did it and all we have to do now is survive the next 18 years," Jo laughs.

"I would have loved to see you pregnant ," Steph laughs.

"You would have taken much pleasure from that," Alex chuckles.

"So um, how have you been?" Jo asks Steph.

Steph smiles, "I've been good. Traveled a lot. I've been to most of the world by now."

"Oh! I bet! What was your favourite place? Where are you off to next? Oh! Photos, photos! I need to see photos. Like lots and lots of photos, " Jo rants.

"Wow, That was a lot of questions in such a short amount of time. Are you alright? Karev, is she alright?" Steph questions.

"She doesn't get out much anymore," Alex replies a mater of factly.

"Karev, you need to walk her. She will go insane and I will tell you that I told you so," Steph warns.

"She's stubborn. She won't leave them," Alex replies.

"Well, after everything we went through in the NICU, can you blame me?" Jo questions.

Alex shakes his head, "no."

"You didn't answer my questions Steph. And if my calculations are correct, we got exactly 10 minutes and 42 seconds until Lina wakes up, with the rest following in suite," Jo advises.

"I literally never thought I'd hear you say that," Steph chuckles. "Anyway. Favourite place by far has been Europe. You just can't beat those sunsets. I have plenty of photos, don't worry. And yes, you will get to see them all. And I'm actually not going anywhere next. I'm back," Steph smiles.

"Like, back in Seattle back?" Jo questions.

"Back as in Grey Sloan back," Steph responds.

"I know I'm insanity sleep deprived, but did you just say what I thought you just said?" Jo questions.

Steph nods her head, "I talked to Bailey. I'm back. I start next week. I'll be a fifth year resident again."

"Oh my god, that's great! I mean, I won't be there, which is sad for you, but Alex will look out for you. And this just gives me one more excuse to go to the hospital with the girls," Jo says excitedly.

"Karev, Like I said, you NEED to walk her," Steph responds in a serious tone.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**3 months later- September 7th**

**Quints- Almost 8 months old (Almost 4 months corrected)**

Out off all the things today Alex Karev wasn't expecting this one. He wasn't by any means expecting the chaos that was this morning, but he certainly wasn't expecting his Ex- Wife to turn up. But there she was standing in front of him looking almost exactly the same as he remembered her…. maybe her hair was a little longer now.

"Izzie, wow, it's good to see you," he says shocked. Truth be told, he didn't know what else to say. I mean, what exactly do you say to your Ex-Wife that you haven't seen or even spoken too In years.

"I know, you're surprised. I can tell by the look in your eyes. You've always had this little look when you're surprised," she replies. "I mean, I don't blame you. This is out of the blue... at least I had warning that I'd see you."

"Wh... what are you doing here?" He asks.

Izzie sighs, "this is going to sound stupid, but I had a dream the other night... only it was more of a nightmare then a dream. You got hurt... badly and you died. I just couldn't shake the feeling that you weren't okay, so I had to come and see you. It's stupid and superstitious, I know, but I needed to make sure that you were okay," she replies.

"Th... Thank you... I guess," Alex replies awkwardly. "But you could have just called me."

"I know that I could have called. But I needed to see," she begins, "You know. All these years I've always dreamed up a life for you. I pictured you happy. It was way better then wondering and I just needed to see that. I needed to see that it was true."

"Well you're right. I am very happy," Alex replies, "I did the same thing for you. I pictured your entire life. Married, three kids. You're a surgeon. Christmas decorations up all year round and a house in a woodsy area that always smelled of muffins. I pirated you as happy as I am, and that was way better then wondering," he adds with a smile.

"You're right about 99% of that. Three kids, I'm married. The Christmas tree is still up from last December. When I'm not working at the hospital my house does always smell like baked goods because I am always baking. But my house isn't in some woodsy area, it's In the suburbs," Izzie replies with a smile.

Alex nods his head, "I'm happy for you Iz. I truly am."

"And you, you said you were happy. Who is making you happy these days?" Izzie questions.

Almost as if Jo knew this was her cue, she walks up behind Izzie while pushing the quints in their obesely large pram. "Hey baby," Jo smiles

Izzie turns an round and Looks at Jo. "Hi there," Jo says awkwardly.

"Jo, this is Izzie... the _real_ Izzie Stevens," he says as he remembers back to the _'baby izzie'_ that showed up at the hospital during the roller coaster accident.

"Ah! Izzie, as in Ex Wife Izzie," Jo says with a slight smile. "I'm Jo... Josephine Karev. I'm the wife."

"Wow, congratulations, you deserve it," Izzie replies genuinely. Izzie then turns her attention to the pram, "and wow," Izzie laughs awkwardly, "Look at all these little people. Ar... are they yours... or... or are they patients here or Ah..." She stutters.

"They're Alex's and I's. Quints... all girls," Jo smiles.

"Ahhh, thanks," Izzie responds.

"You looked like you were trying to add them all up in your head," Jo chuckles. "Most people do."

"Wow Alex, you must really have your hands full. All girls, I do not envy their boyfriends," She laughs. "How old are they?"

"Almost 8 months... almost 4 months corrected," Alex responds.

"Oh my gosh. I love the baby age. It's seriously the best age. Granted, I didn't have five at one time. Although I'd still imagine it'd be great. You have five little babies to snuggle and smell at once, What isn't great about that?" Izzie questions.

"Perky is right," Jo says inquisitively as she studies Izzie's behaviour. Alex certainly used the right word to describe where during the _'baby izzie_' incident.

"Cristina first described Izzie as the Vice President Of fantasy land," Alex remarks.

Jo nods her head, "I can see that." Jo sighs for a moment, "I'm sorry to interrupt this reunion, but Alex, We need to talk," Jo says urgently.

"I'll leave you two alone," Izzie replies. She steps out of the situation and heads down the hall.

"Hm, what's going on?" He questions.

"I was looking over our finances this morning. Alex, It's not good," Jo begins.

"How do you mean? Is the budget not working?" Alex questions.

"The budget was working just fine until the NICU bills started to roll in last week. They're a lot higher then we expected them to be. And I mean a shit-tone higher. I spoke to Bailey and she said that she did everything she could to get them down for us, but that the Billing and finance departments weren't having it, which is why our bills have only just now started to come in," Jo explains.

"How bad is it?" Alex questions.

"We can't afford to live off one wage. I need to go back to work. And I know that it didn't make much sense before, because almost 3/4 of my wage was going to be spent on Childcare, but we need the extra money," Jo responds.

"So we need a nanny?" Alex questions.

"More like Two nannies, and we can't afford that. I spoke to the hospital daycare director and she said that they could start next week," Jo sighs.

Alex looks at her in sympathy, "this isn't what you wanted, I know."

"I wanted to be there at home with them," Jo cries. "And I can't and I feel like a failure."

"You are not a Failure," Alex responds. He puts his arm around his wife to console her

"I am," She sobs even louder. Since having the girls Jo's hormones had been all over the place, much like they were when she was pregnant. Alex had to handle these situations with extreme delicacy, because one wrong thing said would put him in the doghouse. Under regular circumstance 8 weeks after birth Jo's hormone balance would be restored. He had his fingers crossed that her hormones would settle soon, but had been told that given she'd just birthed 5 babies, that it could take up to 5 times longer for her body to restore hormonal balance. That added up to a total of 10 months... a very long 10 months.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**One week later**

**September 14th**

**Quints- 8 month 2 days (4 months 2day corrected)**

In a slump. That's was exactly how Jo felt as she walked into the attending's lounge after dropping the quints off to the daycare with Alex. Jo walks over to her cubby and grabs her scrubs. She heads into the bathroom and quickly changes into her scrubs. After changing she heads to her cubby and grabs out her lab coat and puts it on. She grabs her phone and a pen out of her handbag and places them into her lab coat pocket. She places her handbag into her cubby and walks over to the coffee pot so that she could make a cup of decaf. She pours the beens into the pot and presses the start button.

"Good morning," Jo hears a voice say as the door to the lodge opens.

Jo turns around and notices Amelia walking into the lounge, "Hey," she sighs.

"Oh, hey Jo. What are you doing here?" Amelia questions. "I thought you were taking a few years off?"

"I thought so too. But turns out the hospital expenses are a lot higher then we initially planned for, so we can't afford for me to stay at home. So, it's back to work for me," She explains.

"You sound like your down in the dumps about it," Amelia points out.

"That is the under statement of the year. I'm so not ready for this. I am exhausted… I am more sleep deprived then I have ever been in my life. I can't even have real coffee to help me stay awake. I have to have stupid decaf. I still look 4 months pregnant, which isn't a problem, I'm not at all concerned with my weight. That will come off when it comes off. But looking 4 months pregnant is making me feel a whole lot worse then I already feel. I tried to make myself feel better by putting on some makeup this morning while most of the girls were sleeping, which only improved my ghostly sleep deprived state marginally. And then don't even get me started on the fact that I have to leave my five miracle babies in the care of strangers," Jo complains. She turns back around and begins to pour her ready made decaf into a takeaway cup.

"I cant begin to imagine how hard this is for you, but I'll tell you what," Amelia begins. "Edwards is supposed to be on my service today, but I'll give her to you to make you feel better," Amelia responds.

"Thanks," Jo says with a small smile.

**Scene break**

"Sooo, General hey?" Steph questions as she and Jo walk down the hallway of the hospital.

"Yes," Jo says with a nod of the head.

"I always thought you'd go into Ortho," Steph comments as she glances over at Jo. "I never picked you for General."

"I lost my way with Ortho after Callie left, you know that," Jo reminds her.

"I know. But I always thought you'd find it again," Steph replies.

"I applied for a Surgical innovations fellowship with Bailey after I passed my boards. It was going to start in late September, but the girls came along instead, so it's on hold for now. Now its General until I have the time to commit to a fellowship and we have the money to pay for one," Jo responds.

"Well then, Is general all Appy's and bowel resections?" Steph questions.

Jo gives a chuckle, "Today we have a Laparotomy at 1 and a consult in 10 minutes. First day back so I have no patients to round on."

"Didn't anybody delegate some of their patients to you?" Steph questions as they stop at the nurses station.

Jo leans over the counter and reaches of a tablet, "Nobody wants to overwhelm me on my first day back. I don't blame them, I have five babies, I can barley stay awake."

"I'm sure you'll figure out how to balance it all. I'll just take time," Steph remarks as they continue to walk.

"Well, when somebody figures out how to have it all, send them to me," Jo chuckles. Steph chuckles and then suddenly stops, "What?" Jo questions.

"It's just that this feels somewhat like old times. Sure, a lot has changed, but you and me walking these halls together again feels just like old times," Steph reminisces.

"Hm, it does doesn't," Jo smiles. "Now, you're on my service so I suppose I better teach you something."

"Yeah, you better, or I'll report your Lazy teaching ways to the chief," Steph laughs.

Jo shoes her head and smiles, "What can you tell me about our consult?" Jo asks Steph as she passes her the tablet.

Steph glances at the tablet and quickly looks over the details,"Ah, Liam Todd, 16. He has been referred to the hospital by his GP due to severe stomach pain. He's had blood tests and stool tests that haven't shown any clear answer."

"Excellent, and what would you suggest as the next step?" Jo questions.

"I would suggest an endoscopy so we can search for digestive issues," Steph responds.

"Perfect. You can take the lead on it," Jo replies.

Jo and Steph continue to walk down the hall and then enter the consult room. When they enter they see Liam sitting on the exam table and his mother, standing next to him.

"Hi Liam, I'm Dr Karev and this is Dr Edwards," Jo smiles to Liam. She then turns her attention to his mother, "And You must be Mum."

"Helen," She responds.

"I hear that you are having some severe stomach pain, is that correct?" Jo questions.

"Yes," Liam replies.

"I see that you've had blood work and stool samples taken which have revealed nothing, which is why you're here," Jo recounts to them.

"Thats correct," His mother responds.

"You had blood work taken last week and we have those results here, which as you know look great, which is a fantastic sign, but doesn't explain your symptoms. We're going to go ahead and book you in for an endoscopy.

"Whats that?" Liam questions.

"An endoscopy is where we take a thin scope with a light and camera to look inside the upper digestive tract, the esophagus, stomach, and first part of the small intestine. It will give us a better picture about whats going on. I know that it sounds uncomfortable, but you'll be asleep so you wont be able to feel anything. It's got in your notes that were told to fast for 8 hours before this appointment, have you done that?" Jo questions.

Liam nods his head. "I made sure of it," Helen states.

"Good, good. It means that Your endoscopy can be done this morning. Dr Edwards is going to go through the procedure with you and then get you ready. She will also be the Surgeon doing the procedure for you today," Jo replies.

"Thank you," Helen responds. Jo nods her head and leaves the room.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter seventeen**

**One week later**

**8 months and 9 days old (4 months, 9 days corrected)**

**September 21st**

The screaming cries of five five babies filled the Karev household. Of course, the frantic yelling of Alex and Jo did nothing to calm the hysteria. It all started twenty minutes ago after Jo had changed Phoebe's nappy, a task that the little girl already hated, and realised that her dummy was no where to be seen. Of course Phoebe's screams caused a ripple effect and within two minutes of the crying beginning, all of her sisters were on board.

"Alex! Did you find it?" Jo screams as she desperately rocks Phoebe in her arms to calm her down in the living room. Of course, the screaming probably did nothing to help the situation, but it was the only way the parents could hear each other. As Alex rounds the hallway corner Jo looks at him desperately.

"No! I can't find it! I've looked everywhere!" Alex calls back.

"The spares? They're in the box on my bedside table," Jo suggests.

"I've looked, nothing," Alex sighs as he raises him hands in the air.

"We has like 20 spares, where are they all?" Jo questions.

"In case you haven't noticed, we've got five kids. We blow through them like alcoholics blow through Vodka," Alex replies.

"Please don't liken our children to alcoholics," Jo requests stressfully.

"I'll just go to the supermarket and get some more," Alex responds.

"And leave me here with five screaming babies, alone, to hell with that," Jo responds.

"Then what do you want me to do?!" Alex calls back.

"Call Steph, or Meredith... just call somebody... anybody and get them to pick some up and drop them over," Jo instructs.

Alex nods his head and picks up his mobile phone, which was conveniently located on the hallway entrance table, which was right next to him. He goes into his contacts app and calls Meredith.

Within three rings Meredith picks up her phone, "hey Karev," She says casually.

"I need your help," he blurts out.

"Yeah, I can hear that," Meredith says, referencing the screaming she could hear in the background, "how long have they been screaming for?"

"Too long Mer. Phoebe started it, and the quints all follow each other like a cult. It's scary how dedicated each of them are at mimicking what their sisters do," Alex responds.

"Okay, so what do you need?" Meredith asks.

"I need you to get some dummies from the chemist, supermarket... just from anywhere and bring them over," Alex requests.

"Tell Meredith to make sure that they're the Tommie Tippee ones! They won't take anything else!" Jo shouts out to Alex.

"Jo said that they have to be the Tommie Tippee ones," Alex informs Meredith.

"Got it. I'll be over soon," Meredith says quickly before hanging up the phone.

Alex places his phone back onto the counter and heads back to the living room and over to Grace, "she'll be over soon," Alex says as he picks Grace up.

"You have a dummy, so why are you screaming?" Alex asks Grace as he rocks her.

**Scene break**

"Oh my god, you are a life saver," Alex sighs as she collected the dummies from Meredith's hands.

"I am your person," Meredith smirks.

"Is that Meredith?" Jo calls out from the living room.

"Yes!" Alex calls.

Jo quickly makes her way out of he living room and to the door, "woah Jo... you look..." Meredith begins.

"Like a hot mess, yeah, yeah, I know," Jo responds, "look, have you got some free time? Like 30 minutes? We could really use some backup."

"Ah..." Meredith stutters.

Before Meredith could finish Jo grabs her by the hand and pulls her inside, "you can take Bella."

"O... okay," Meredith responds. Meredith heads over to Bella and picks up the little girl and begins to rock her.

Within thirty minutes the three adults had managed to calm down all five babies and get them to all sleep. Exhausted, Meredith, Alex and Jo were all passed out on the couch.

"How do you do this day in and day out? It's exhausting," Meredith sighs. "And you're both working. Are you literal superhero's?"

"Honestly, most days are a blur. I hardly get any surgeries because everybody is afraid I'll fall asleep during it. I don't blame them, I'm about as sleep deprived as you can get. But we do it because we have to. Five little lives depend on us doing it, so we do," Jo replies.

"And Jo is a warrior queen," Alex replies. Jo smirks, she knew exactly what he was referencing.

"Thank you," Jo says as she looks at Meredith, "and I'm sorry for forcing you in here and holding you hostage," she chuckles.

"I'm Alex's person. I will always drop everything and come over to help you out. But be aware, I will never ever change a sticky nappy... ever. I'm well and truly past that stage and I'm not going back there," Meredith laughs.

"Understood," Alex responds.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter eighteen**

**2 months later**

**10 months and 9 days old (6 months, 9 days corrected)**

**November 21st**

"I'm sorry," Alex says as he turns the corner and rushes over to Jo, who was heading towards the lift.

Jo quickly glances over at Alex before continuing to look ahead, "for calling me a hooker?" She questions.

Alex looks at Jo, "I never called you a…"

Jo looks at Alex, "you suggested that I trade sex with you to get in on a piggyback transplant, which makes me a pretty High-class hooker, actually," she corrects him.

"It was wrong, I know that. But our sex life is non existent. I had the snip months ago. I thought we would of had sex at least once since then," Alex replies desperately.

They reach the lift and stop walking. Alex presses the button on the lift as Jo hears a male voice talking behind her. Her ears perk up as she recognises the voice. Jo turns around and looks at the man.

"Is that..." she begins to ask Alex.

"Yeah, that's Link he's the..." Alex begins.

"Atticus Lincoln!" She exclaims with a chuckle.

Link turns around and sees Jo, "Brooke!"

Jo chuckles unbelievably, "Link!"

"What!" The both exclaim together.

Jo gives a squeal and they rush towards each other. They each hold their arms out for a hug as she rushes forwards.

Jo rushes into his arms and he picks up and spins her around, "Oh my gosh!" He laughs.

"You work here?" He asks as he puts her down.

"I work here!" Jo confirms with an excited chuckle.

"No way!" He replies.

Alex walks over the pair with a confused look on his face. Just how did Jo know Link? It was clear to him that they must have known each other quite a long time ago, given the fact that he had referred to her as Brooke.

"Brooke Eloise Stadler as I live and breath. I can't believe it," Link chuckles with a shake of the head.

"Atticus Edward Lincoln, as I leave and breath. I can't believe it," Jo copies with a grin. Jo looks at him with a miffed look on her face, she just couldn't believe that Link was standing here.

Alex walks over to the pair, "Wh… what's going on?" He asks Jo.

Jo and Link calm down and Jo looks at Alex with a smile. She then looks back at Link.

"What? Did you guys used to date or something?" Alex questions.

Jo gives a loud chuckle, "him and me? Oh God no, we never dated. We were friends. He moved to California while we were in Med school and we lost touch," Jo replies.

"How's Paul?" Link asks, Jo looks at him unsteadily, "you're still together aren't you? You were like the perfect couple. If _'Perfect couple' _was a statement in the dictionary and it needed a picture to go with it, I'd be you and Paul," Link states innocently.

Jo begins to look uncomfortable and quickly glances at the floor and then looks back up and takes a deep breath, "It may have seemed that way to everybody who was looking at the Marriage from the outside, but it was anything but perfection, believe me. Paul died over a year ago," Jo replies.

He looks at Jo in shock, "Oh my, I am so sorry," he states.

Jo shakes her head, "Don't be. I left him just over 5 years ago. It was a very toxic and abusive relationship."

Link looks at her in shock. Just how did this slip by him? He saw the couple nearly every single day back in Boston, "I... I had no idea. I… I'm so sorry."

"No, of course you wouldn't have. Nobody knew. He was very good at hiding it and I was very good at pretending it was all okay," Jo explains. "But things are on the up now. This is Alex Karev, he's my husband," Jo says with a smile.

Link nods his head with approval. Alex extends his hand, "Alex Karev, Paeds surgery."

Link and Alex shake hands, "Nice strong handshake, I like that," Link says.

Jo chuckles and looks at Alex, "strong, handsome and sexy." They grin at each other and both lean in for a kiss.

"How do you know each other?" Alex questions.

"We should get something to eat, Sit down and catch up?" Link suggests.

Jo looks over at Alex, who appeared a little flustered by the whole situation. She then looks over at Link, "Sure."

**Scene break**

"I must say, this is the biggest hospital I've ever worked at," Link states as He, Alex and Jo sit down at an empty table in the lunch room. The room was relatively quite now, seeing as it was now well past lunch time. Jo had a cup of Decaf Coffee in her hands while Alex and Link each had a bottle of water.

"It is massive," Jo confirms with a nod of the head.

"So, How do you guys know each other?" Alex questions once more, after all, he was pretty sure that that was the entire reason for this _'lunch'_ catch up. If you could even call it that at 4pm.

Jo takes a sip of her coffee before answering the question, "He's like my brother. I knew Link another lifetime ago back in Boston, we waited tables together at the Crab shack."

"And then I had to move back down to LA. My father was quite sick so I needed to be down there with my family. After residency I got a job at a Military hospital to build prosthetics for soldiers who were wounded in war," Link explains.

"That sounds rather fascinating, why did you leave?" Alex questions.

"My ex-wife got a job opportunity here in Seattle," Link explains.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jo responds, "about the ex wife that is."

"Kathy. She was assistant principle of a Special Education school back in LA. She got a job opportunity to be principle of a special education school here. We can't Co-parent in different states so I decided to move down here with her. We're great friends so I was happy to do it. It's a great opportunity for her, so I didn't let her turn it down," Link explains.

"So you guys have children?" Alex questions.

"We have a son and a daughter. Noah, he's 2 and Jessie is 4," Link replies. He pulls his iPhone out of his lab coat pocket and opens up the photos app. He pulls up a recent photo of Noah and Jessie and shows it to Jo and Alex.

Jo chuckles, "Aw, they're soooo cute." Jo looks over at Alex, "they're cute, don't you reckon they're cute?"

Alex nods his head slowly, "very cute." He looks over at Jo, who was still looking at the picture of Noah and Jessie. "Woah, Babe, do I see your ovaries working up a storm there? Do I need to calm them down?" He chuckles.

Jo chuckles, "trust me, you do not have to worry about that. This factory is closed," she emphasis as she points to her uterus.

"Do you guys have children? Or are you pregnant? That's if you want children?" Link questions.

"I may look pregnant..." Jo begins.

"Oh, that's Ah, that's not what I mean. I don't think that…." Link stutters.

"I know that. But, trust me, I still feel pregnant, but I'm not. We have five kids though," Jo replies.

"Oh gosh. I never pictured you with five kids. I thought you'd have two, three tops," Link replies.

"Well, that would have been the case, but I got pregnant with Quints. They're just over 10 months old, but only 6 months corrected," Jo replies.

"I… wow…" Link stutters.

"I know. I know exactly what you're thinking," Jo begins, "We're crazy," Jo and Alex say in sink.

"And you're both working. I don't even know how you're doing it," Link replies amazed.

"I'm only working because we can't afford the NICU bills if I don't," Jo explains.

"The hospital didn't discount them, you know, seeing as you both work here?" Link questions curiously.

"Bailey got it down as much as she could, and insurance covered almost half of that, but we still owe just over $500,000," Alex responds.

"Man, That sucks. What are... what are their names?" Link asks.

"Phoebe Helen, Felicity Brooke, Bella Alexandra, Grace Stephanie and Lina Meredith," Jo smiles. She pulls out her phone from her lab coat pocket and pulls up a recent photo of the quints.

"They're adorable. They look strong willed," Link comments.

Alex and Jo look at each other, "they are," they both reply.

"It's exhausting, but it's the best thing we've ever done," Jo says happily as she looks lovingly into Alex's eyes. They give each other a kiss and then turn to look at Link.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get away from Paul?" Link asks curiously. "You... you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I'm just glad that you are safe and that you've found somebody who clearly loves you immensely."

Jo takes a deep breath and swallows hard, "after he broke my ribs..." Jo begins. Alex flinches uncomfortably and takes a hold of Jo's hand. He hated hearing Jo talk about how Paul hurt her. "I spent some time in hospital. It was very lonely and I became very resourceful. One of the nurses had found his phone lying around and had handed it into me. It had all of his passwords stored in it, including for the bank accounts... a rookie mistake, you should never keep those kinds of passwords on your phone. I took a photo of them using my phone and signed an AMA and left the hospital. I transferred a large amount of money into my account and I ran. I changed my name and headed here, to Seattle. Josephine Wilson is what I changed it to, but I'm Josephine Karev now," Jo says with a huge smile. She looks over at Alex and they share a kiss.

"Well, That makes you very brave," Link responds.

Jo nods her head, "Thank you."

"So, what speciality did you choose? I know in Med school you were leaning towards general," Link asks.

"Well, I general surgeon at the moment. I was going to complete a surgical innovation fellowship with Dr Bailey that started in September, but the quints happened instead. I want to cure Cancer," Jo replies proudly. "But it will have to wait for now."

"I don't know how I got her to marry me. I really don't. She is far to good for me," Alex laughs.

Jo bites the corner of her lip, "hang on babe," she begins, "If I recall correctly, I was the one who proposed to you."

"After I'd proposed several times before that," he reminds her.

"In my defence, I only said no because I couldn't legally marry you," she adds.

"Wow, you guys are literally perfect... it's like you were made for each other," Link comments.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter nineteen**

**5 days later**

**10 months and 2 weeks old (6 months and 2 weeks corrected)**

**November 26th**

3 hours. That's how long it took Jo to get the Quints from the Karev household to the hospital for their wellness checkup. First it took 2 hours and 20 minutes to get the girls ready to go and into the car. There of course had been many times when she had almost been ready to head out the door, but one child would drop a bomb in her nappy and then it would spiral.

It then took 40 minutes for Jo to make the 20 minute drive to the hospital. The trip had been filled with screams and tantrums, so much so that Jo had been required to stop on the side of the road to settle them.

Alex had ensured that he'd have a light schedule, so he'd be able to help her once she arrived at Grey Sloan, which provided her with comfort as she pulled into the car park of the hospital.

Jo begins the all to real struggle of attempting to park the family's Large Nissan NV passenger van, or affectionally nicknamed 'the Karev Quint Van' by Meredith. Jo decided to head to the west car park, it was noticeably less busier then the main car park and allowed Jo to park the van without too much difficulty.

After Jo parks the van she walks around the back and opens up the boot of the car. With difficulty she pulls out their six seater pram and sets it up. One by one Jo pulls out each of the quints and straps them into the pram.

"Phone, baby bag, keys. one, two, three, four, five children," Jo says to herself. After ensuring that she had everything and everyone she made the walk down to the hospital.

In the past ten months Jo had grown accustomed to all the looks and comments given to her by people passing by, and today was no exception. Jo received countless looks as comments as she made her way through the lobby, only one comment made her stop quite still. 'Why would you have so many children. The world is overpopulated as it is.' The woman passing by said.

"How rude," Jo muttered to herself. Jo glances down at her beautiful children and smiles. All of a sudden Jo feels somebody bump into her from behind, which causes her and the quints to be pushed a little further.

Jo turns around, "Hey! Would you mind looking where you're..." Jo looks up and her eyes interlocks with the man who bumped into her.

"You look familiar," They say in sync. They both chuckle a little.

"Your name wouldn't happen to be Brooke would it?" He asks.

"Ah, no," Jo shakes her head, "Well, it was. But it's not anymore," she admits.

"Brooke Miller," he smiles.

Jo looks at him intrigued, "And how do we know each other?" Jo questions.

"2001, we were in the Banks house together," he responds.

Jo's eyes grow wide, "you're fire boy. You set a fire in the basement of the house because you didn't put out the Cigarette you were smoking properly."

"Well, for the record I don't smoke anymore. And the name is Finn Walker," he responds.

"Well, I'm glad, because your breath always stunk," she chuckles.

"Well, if I remember correctly you didn't seem to have a problem kissing me despite my horrible breath," he reminds her.

"Oh God, I didn't did I? But In my defence I was like 14," she recalls.

"You look like you've got your hands full," he states.

Jo chuckles, "Yeah, I do. And I would love to stay and chat but I have to get these lovelies upstairs so that my _husband_ and I can take them to their 10 month check up."

"Well, it was good seeing you again Brooke," he states.

"It's Josephine... Jo now. But it was good seeing you too," she smiles. The pair nod heads and part ways. Jo heads over to the lift on the south side of the hospital and waits for it. Thankfully the lift was empty, which made the ride up to the Paediatrics floor easy.

Jo pushed the monster of a pram through the narrow hallways and into an empty consult room. She pulls out her phone and notices she had a message from Alex.

'Been pulled into emergency transplant surgery. Arizona was already in surgery so she couldn't take it, but will still be able to do the quints wellness checkups. So sorry babe, I know how much you need my help, but there was no other choice. Could you see if anybody else can help you? xoxoxo, Alex'

Jo sighs, but thankfully she had options on who she could page. There was Link, Steph, Meredith, April and the list went on and on.

Jo decides to page Steph and Link and within 10 minutes of the page both were knocking on the door. Jo opens the door to reveal Link and Steph. "Oh, you're both here, at the same time," Jo says surprised.

"We were on a case together," Steph stutters.

"Hm, right," Jo responds with a grin.

"We were," Steph reassures Jo.

Jo nods her head, "What case?"

The pair stutter and Jo rolls her eyes, "Seriously, Link, You've been here for what, 5 days? And you're already shagging my best friend."

"I though I was your best friend," Link responds.

"You're both my best friends from different periods of my life and you're both my best friends now," Jo corrects. "Luckily the quints are all currently sleeping. Alex is going to be here after his surgery for the wellness checks, but when they get done we will need your help. The babies are getting their first round of needles today and its not going to be pretty."

"You know I don't think I know how you both know each other," Steph states.

"From back when I was in Med school. We worked in the Crab shack waiting tables together. It feels like lifetimes ago… Well I mean, it was. Of course, I still went by Brooke and was still with Paul and pretending it was all okay," Jo recalls.

"So did Link help you get out?" Steph asks.

Jo shakes her head, "No, he had no idea what was going on. Paul and I were very good at painting a perfect facade. Mine was in fear of others finding out and what Paul would do not only to me, but to them. But I got out after he moved away…" Jo was I erupted by the cries of one of the quints. She quickly leaps into action and settles Phoebe before she had a chance to wake up her sisters.

Link chuckles, "I still can not get over the sight of you with five babies. It's insane."

"Try living it, and then see how insane you feel," Jo laughs.

Two hours later all the quits wellness checkups were complete. With so many helping hands the time flew by and Now Jo was driving back home with all five quints sleeping in their car seats. She was fortunate to be able to swiftly get all of the quints inside without waking them up and now sat in the living room watching all five tiny, precious babies sleep in their car seats. Jo smiles, "I love you all to the moon and back."


	20. Chapter 20

So, this is it guys. This is the final chapter. I hope that you've all enjoyed reading this story as mush as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to all my readers who reviewed every chapter and thank you to those who may have only reviewed a few times, favourited, followed or simply just read without reviewing. I'm so greatful for all of your support and I have some exciting ideas and collabs coming up, so please keep your eyes pealed.

As always sending you all mountains of love, happiness and light!

**Chapter Twenty**

**6 weeks later**

**1 year old (8 months and 2 weeks corrected)**

**January 8th 2020**

Jo and Alex sit in one of the many gazebos the park laughing as they watch the birthday party they worked so hard to plan go up in smoke. The bouncy castle was deflating, the rain was coming down hard, People were slipping over while trying to run into the covered gazebos and getting mud through their hair and clothes as a result, food was flying all over the place and people were screaming their head off trying to force their children lout of the rain.

The pair look over at the quints, who were all blissfully asleep and unaware of the horror show unfolding around them. Despite the events occurring around them they both turn to each other and smile with pride, "We made it," Jo says with a huge grin on her face.

Alex nods his head and looks over at his wife, "We sure did. We. Made. It."

**Earlier that day**

"Right, Meredith is at the park and said that the jumping castle is up and running. Food is on the way and the sun is shinning," Alex tells Jo as he walks into the bedroom to find her dressing the final quint into her birthday outfit. Each baby was wearing a pink onesie and had a coloured bow on that matched with their quint colour, the system that had identified them in the hospital.

"Perfect. Babies are all dressed, changed and fed. I'm ready, but you on the other hand are not," Jo states as she looks over at her husband who was wearing an old painting t-shirt and jeans.

"What's wrong with this?" Alex questions.

Jo rolls her eyes, "You can seriously not see whats wrong with that outfit. It's old and dirty and this is a special occasion. It's a miracle that we made it this far and still have our heads screwed on."

Alex chuckles, "I was kidding Jo. Of course I'm changing. I'll be ready in 5." Alex leans in and gives Jo a kiss.

"Mmm," Jo responds while giving him the stinkeye.

It took the family of seven a further hour to make it down to the park where they found Meredith, Maggie, Amelia and the kids all waiting for them.

"What happened to being twenty minutes away Karev's?" Amelia questions once the group walk over.

"You have quintuplets and then get back to us about how long it takes to get out of the house," Alex responds.

"Wow Karev, I never thought those words would ever come out of your mouth. And yet, they did," Amelia chuckles.

"At least they made it before the party started," Maggie points out.

Thirty minutes later the guests started rolling in. All approached either Alex or Jo upon arrival and congratulated them for making it to the year mark, which of course was no huge feet, an achievement which was not lost on either of them.

Arizona walks over to Jo and sits down next to her. "That present table is getting bigger by the minute," Arizona chuckles.

"We specifically put on the invite to bring only one present, not individual ones. Now I have no idea where to put them," Jo sighs.

Arizona chuckles, "I may have been one of the people who didn't read that statement on the invite."

"I know. I saw you lugging five presents in," She laughs.

Arizona turns her attention to the five sleeping babies in the pram in front of Jo, "all party pooped, hey?"

Jo nods her head and laughs, "and cake drunk." Jo sighs, "the cloud cover is really starting to come over, do you think people have realised that it's going to rain?"

"Well, nobody is leaving, so no, I doubt it. But this is a huge moment Jo, you and Alex have been raising these five beautiful little girls for an entire year now. You survived the long days and even longer nights in the NICU, you survived the sleepless nights and all the worry wondering if everything was going to be okay. Together you've both come out of this stronger. We're celebrating both of you as you as much as we're celebrating the quints," Arizona smiles.

"Thank you," Jo smiles, "and thank you for bringing these five wonderful girls into the world and keeping them safe, helping them grow and protecting them when I couldn't. Alex and I... we'll never be able to thank you enough. But, thank you."

"You're welcome," Arizona smiles simply. She gives Jo a huge and then stands up and walks out of the gazebo. A moment later Alex walks inside and sits next to Jo.

"We're going to have to re-organise the entire house to fit all of these toys inside," Alex chuckles.

"I know," Jo responds, "even then I think we might need to build a shed."

Alex gives a little chuckle, "I think you're right."

"We have five one year olds," Jo says in awe.

"Did you only just figure that out?" Alex chuckles.

"I just, I can't believe it. I'm pinching myself every day wondering if this is real life because I just feel... I just feel so blessed. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd have a real family," Jo smiles.

The pair hear a clap of thunder and notice rain starting to trickle down from the sky. Alex pulls Jo In for a hug, "this is real and it's amazing and you are amazing. And I know I've said that a million times in this past year alone, but you are. Without you we wouldn't have this life. You did it Jo. You incubated five babies inside of you... you provided them with a safe place to grow until your body physically couldn't do it anymore. It was all you Jo, you brought them into the world... all I did was provide genetic material."

All of a sudden the wind gusts pick up and the rain comes pouring down from the heavens above. "Oh God," They both laugh as disaster starts to unfold around them.

The bouncy castle was deflating, the rain was coming down hard, People were slipping over while trying to run into the covered gazebos and getting mud through their hair and clothes as a result, food was flying all over the place and people were screaming their head off trying to force their children lout of the rain.

The pair look over at the quints, who were all blissfully asleep and unaware of the horror show unfolding around them. Despite the events occurring around them they both turn to each other and smile with pride, "We made it," Jo says with a huge grin on her face.

Alex nods his head and looks over at his wife, "We sure did. We. Made. It."

_**Happy babies have shining eyes. They walk open heartedly into the world and they spread magic.**_

_**-Sigrid Leo (quote was modified slightly)**_


End file.
